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A 

SHORT  HISTORY 

OF 

FRENCH   LITERATURE 


BY 


L.  E.  KASTNER,  B.A.(CAMB.) 

Formerly  Scholar  of  Clare  College,  Cambridge 

Late  Assistant  Master  at  Merchistou  School,  Edinburgh;  Assistant  Lecturer  in 
Modern  Languages  at  Gonville  and  Caius  College,  Cambridge 

AND 

H.  G.  ATKINS,  M.A.(LoND.),  B. A.  (GAME.) 

Formerly  Exhibitioner  and  Vidil  Prizeman  of  Trinity  College,  Cambridge 
Instructor  in  German  at  the  Koyal  Naval  College,  Greenwich 


NEW  YORK 

HENRY  HOLT   AND   COMPANY 
1007 


PREFACE 


In  writing  this  volume  it  has  been  the  authors'  ambition  to 
fill  the  gap  that  is  felt  by  many  to  exist  between  the  numerous 
primers  of  French  literature,  and  such  larger  works  as  those  of 
Saintsbury  and  Dowden. 

While  the  requirements  of  candidates  for  examination  have 
throughout  been  steadily  kept  in  view,  the  authors  have  no  less 
earnestly  endeavoured  to  make  this  short  sketch  a  thoroughly 
reliable  introduction  to  the  study  of  French  literature,  for  all 
who  desire  to  become  acquainted  with  the  subject.  No  attempt 
has  been  made  to  secure  an  illusory  completeness  by  the  mere 
enumeration  of  names  of  third  and  fourth  rate  importance. 
On  the  other  hand,  those  of  the  first  rank  are  dealt  with  at 
considerable  length,  while  such  writers  of  lesser  importance,  as 
the  authors  have  for  various  reasons  felt  compelled  to  include, 
are  treated  in  a  smaller  type,  which  serves  the  double  purpose 
of  indicating  their  relative  position  and  of  economizing  con- 
siderable space.  Biographies  of  the  principal  authors,  and 
brief  summaries  of  the  contents  of  the  more  important  works, 
are  likewise  given  in  the  smaller  type. 

All  the  leading  authorities  on  French  literature,  among 
whom  may  be  mentioned  Gaston  Paris,  Darmesteter,  Lanson, 
Brunetiere,  Faguet,  and  Jules  Lemaitre,  have  been  consulted, 
and  in  the  case  of  the  most  conspicuous  writers,  the  criticisms 
expressed  are  based  on  a  first-hand  acquaintance  with  their 
writings,  supported,  where  possible,  by  the  internal  evidence 
of  the  works  themselves. 


iv  PREFACE 

Instead  of  closing  the  survey,  as  do  some  books,  with  the 
decline  of  Eomanticism,  or  as  others,  with  that  of  Naturalism, 
the  history  of  French  literature  has  been  traced  down  to  the 
present  day.  It  may  be  objected  that  living  writers  are  too 
near  to  us  to  allow  of  an  impartial  and  complete  judgment 
on  their  works.  No  attempt  has  been  made  to  pass  any 
such  judgment,  but  such  an  account  of  the  French  literature 
of  to-day  is  given  as  may  at  least  serve  to  indicate  its  general 
tendencies. 

Lastly,  thanks  are  offered  to  various  friends,  and  more 
especially  to  Mr.  C.  W.  Paget  Moffatt,  of  Clare  College, 
Cambridge,  for  valuable  suggestions  during  the  period  of 

preparation. 

L.  E.  K. 

H.  G.  A. 

CAMBBIDGE,  March,  1900. 


CONTENTS 


INTRODUCTORY  CHAPTER 

Origin  of  the  French  Language — The  Langue  d'Oc — The  Langue  d'Otl 
and  its  Dialects — Prevalence  of  the  Dialect  of  the  Ile-de-France  - 

Pages  1-5 

BOOK    I 

MIDDLE    AGES 

GENERAL  VIEW 

Characteristics  of  French  Medieval  Literature :  Uniformity  and  Lack 
of  Individuality — Defiance  of  Nature — Almost  Total  Absence  of 
Sense  of  Art  and  Form — General  Survey  of  French  Medieval 
Literature Pages  6-7 

CHAPTER  I.— EPIC  POETRY 

Main  Divisions: — (1)  The  French  or  National  Epic:  First  Period — 
Second  Period — Third  Period — Fourth  Period — Division  into 
Cycles — Smaller  Cycles  and  later  Chansons  de  Geste — Their 
Metrical  Form — Their  Scheme  of  Matter — Volume  and  Age  of 
the  Chansons — Chanson  de  Roland — Analysis.  (2)  The  Epic  of 
Antiquity :  Benoit  de  Sainte-More — His  Works — Lesser  Authors. 
(3)  The  Breton  Epic:  Geoffrey  of  Monmouth — Divisions — Keltic 
Spirit  of  First  Group — Marie  de  France — Beroul — Thomas — 
Second  Group — Chretien  de  Troie — Change  of  Spirit — His 
Works— Their  Character— Third  Group— The  Holy  Graal— 
Robert  de  Boron — Later  Developments  —  Pages  7-18 

CHAPTER  II.— LYRICAL  POETRY 

First  Period:  Chansons  d'Histoire  and  Chansons  de  Toile — Second 
Period:  Proven§al  Influence — Chief  Representatives  —  Third 
Period:  Its  Characteristics — Guillaume  de  Machaut — Jean  de 
Froissart  —  Eustache  Deschamps  —  Christine  de  Pisan  —  Alain 
Chartier— His  Prose Pages  18-21 


VI  CONTENTS 

CHAPTER  III.-DRAMA 

(1)  Tragic  Drama.  The  Liturgical  Drama — The  Jeu  d'Adam — The 
Jeu  de  Saint- Nicolas — Miracles — The  Miracle  de  Thdophile — 
Mysteries — Divisions — Arnoul  Greban — Performance  of  Mys- 
teries— Theatrical  Companies — Confrerie  de  la  Passion.  (2) 
Comedy  in  the  Middle  Ages :  The  Jeu  de  la  Feuillee — The  Jeu 
de  Robin  et  de  Marion  —  Clercs  de  la  Basoche — Enfants  sans 
Souci — The  Farce — Pathdin — Analysis — The  Morality — The 
Sottic — Gringoire Pages  22-27 

CHAPTER  IV.— SATIRICAL  AND  ALLEGORICAL 
POETRY 

(1)  Satirical  Literature:  Fables — The  Isopet  of  Marie  de  France — 
The  Roman  de  Renard — Its  Branches — Characters  and  Character- 
istics— The  Fableaux — Their  Bulk,  Age,  and  Origin — Authors  of 
Fableaux  —  Rutebeuf  —  His  Works  —  Later  Developments  of 
Fableaux — Other  Kinds  of  Satirical  Poetry — Etats  du  Monde — 
Evangiles — Bibles — Debats — Disputes — Batailles — Conges — Chas- 
tiements,  &c.  (2)  Allegorical  Literature:  Bcstiaires — Lapidaires 
—  Volucraires — Philippe  de  Thaon — Richard  de  Fournival — The 
Roman  de  la  Rose — Two  Distinct  Parts — Guillaume  de  Lorris  and 
Jean  de  Meung — The  First  Part — Analysis — The  Second  Part  as 
compared  to  the  First — Importance  of  Jean  de  Meung — Rise  of 
Allegory Pages  27-33 

CHAPTER  V.— HISTORY  AND  MISCELLANEOUS 
PROSE 

(1)  History:  Rimed  Chronicles — Gaimar — Wace — Benolt  de  Sainte- 
More — Gamier  de  Pont  Sainte-Maxence — Histoire  de  OuiUaume 
le  Martchal — The  Great  Prose  Chroniclers — Geoffroy  de  Ville- 
hardouin — Jean  de  Joinville — Jean  de  Froissart :  His  Life — His 
Chroniques — Philippe  de  Commines:  His  Life — His  Mtmoires. 
(2)  Miscellaneous  Prose:  Aucassin  et  Nicolette — Antoine  de  la 
Salle — Sermons — Brunetto  Latini  -  ...  Pages  33-37 

CHAPTER  VI.— LATER  MEDIEVAL  POETS 

Charles  d'Orleans:  His  Life — His  Work  and  its  Characteristics — 
Francois  Villon :  His  Life — The  Grand  Testament — His  Shorter 
Poems — His  Position  and  Importance — The  Grands  Rhetoriqueurs 
— Jean  Molinet — Jean  Meschinot — Guillaume  Cretin  Pages  37-40 


CONTENTS  Vll 

BOOK   II 

SIXTEENTH    CENTURY 

GENERAL  VIEW 

Renaissance  and  Reformation — First  Period:  Development  of  Indi- 
vidualism—Clement Marot — Frangois  Rabelais — Goodness  and 
Divinity  of  Nature — Second  Period :  The  Sentiment  of  Art — The 
Pleiade  and  Ronsard — The  Reformation — The  Latinization  of 
Culture — Third  Period :  The  Foundation  of  Literature  on  Psycho- 
logical and  Moral  Observation — Amyot  and  Montaigne  —  The 
Philosophy  of  Reason — The  Subordination  of  Literature  to  Social 
Life -  -  -  Pages  41-44 

FIRST  PERIOD  (1500-1549) 
CHAPTER  I.— POETRY 

Jean  le  Maire  de  Beiges:  His  Works — Clement  Marot:  His  Life — 
His  Works — Connection  with  the  Middle  Ages — His  Position — 
His  Epigrams — In  how  far  he  is  Typical  of  the  Renaissance — 
Marguerite  de  Navarre — Her  Poetic  Works — Melin  de  Saint- 
Gelais:  Character  of  his  Verse — The  School  of  Lyons:  Maurice 
Sceve — Louise  Labe Pages  45-50 

CHAPTER  II.— DRAMA 
Nicole  de  la  Chesnaye — Jean  de  Pourtalis       ....       Page  50 

CHAPTER  III.— PROSE 

Fran9ois  Rabelais:  His  Life — His  Works — Short  Analysis  of  Gar- 
gantua  and  Pantayruel — The  Meaning  of  Rabelais'  Buffoon  Epic — 
His  Philosophy  of  Life — His  Style — Marguerite  de  Navarre: 
The  Heptanufron  dcs  Nouvelles — Its  Riskiness — Bonaventure  des 
Periers:  The  NouveUes  Recreations  et  Joyeux  Devis  —  Their 
Spirit — The  Cymbalum  Mundi — Jean  Calvin:  His  Life — The 
Institution  de  la  Religion  Chr&ienne — Calvin's  Doctrine — Herberay 
desEssarts:  The  Amadis  des  Gaules  ...  Pages  51-58 

SECOND  PERIOD  (1549-1605) 

CHAPTER  I.— POETRY 

The  Pleiadc :  Its  Members — Their  Ambition — The  Defense  et  Illus- 
tration de  la  Lanyue  Fran<;aise — Other  Theoretical  Works — 
Three  Principal  Points  in  the  Literary  Reform  of  the  Pleiade — 


V1U  CONTENTS 

The  Formation  of  a  Poetic  Diction  Distinct  from  that  of  Prose — 
The  Substitution  of  the  Older  Forms  of  French  Poetry  for 
Classical  Forms  —  A  Revolution  of  Versification  —  Pierre  de 
Ronsard :  His  Life — His  Works — Divisions  and  Characteristics — 
Ronsard's  Genius — Joachim  du  Bellay :  His  Life — His  Works — 
Their  Originality — Lesser  Members  of  the  PUiade — Baif — Vert 
Mesures — Belleau — Importance  of  the  Reform  of  the  PUiade — 
The  Protestant  Poets — Guillaume  du  Bartas :  The  Premiere  and 
Seconde  Semaine — Du  Bartas  a  Caricature  of  Ronsard — Theodore 
Agrippa  d' Aubigne :  The  Tragiqucs — The  A  ventures  du  Baron  de 
Fceneste — Degenerate  Disciples  of  Ronsard — Philippe  Desportes — 
Jean  Bertaut — Vauquelin  de  la  Fresnaye — Jean  Passerat  - 

Pages  59-69 

CHAPTER  II.— DRAMA 

The  Programme  of  the  PUiade — Inauguration  of  Classical  Drama — 
Medieval  Drama  dies  hard.  (1)  Tragedy:  Jodelle — Chantelouve — 
De  Beze — Loys  Desmasures — The  CUdpatre  of  Jodelle— Charac- 
teristics of  the  Classical  Drama  of  the  16th  Century — Scaliger — 
Grevin — Jean  de  la  Taille — Gamier :  The  Juives  and  Bradamente 
— Montchre"tien :  The  Ecossaise.  (2)  Comedy:  Jodelle's  Eugene — 
Grevin — Jean  de  la  Taille — Odet  de  Turnebe — Larivey:  Great 
Progress  on  his  Predecessors — General  Character  of  16th-Century 
Comedy Pages  69-74 

CHAPTER  III.— PROSE 

Prose-translators — Jacques  Amyot:  His  Translations  of  Plutarch — 
Their  Twofold  Importance — Memoirs — Blaise  de  Monluc:  The 
Commentaires — Brantdme:  His  Works — Their  Literary  Value — 
Fran9ois  de  la  Noue :  Discours  Politiques  et  Militaires — De  Thou : 
Historia  mei  Temporis — Political  Writers — Jean  Bodin:  The 
SApublique — His  Ideas — Etienne  de  la  Boe"tie:  The  Contr'un — 
Fran£ois  Hotman:  The  Franco-  Gattia — His  Theories — Michel  de 
1'Hopital — The  Satire  Mtnippee :  Political  Situation  in  France — 
Its  Scheme  and  Authors — Treatises  on  Grammar  and  Language — 
Louis  Meigret — Ramus — Henri  Etienne:  War  against  Italian 
Influence — Italian  Elements — Traite  de  la  Conformite  du  Francois 
avec  le  Grec — The  Precellence  de  la  Langue  Francoise — The 
Nouveaux  Dialogues  du  Langage  Francois  Italianise'  —  Claude 
Fauchet:  The  Antiguitez  Gauloites  et  Francoises — Recueil  de 
VOrigine  de  la  Langue  et  Poesie  Francoise — Etienne  Pasquier: 
Recherches — Short  Analysis — Michel  de  Montaigne:  His  Life — 
The  Essays — Their  Composition  —  The  Apologie  de  Raymond 
Sebond — The  Essence  of  Montaigne's  Thought— Scepticism  with 
regard  to  Metaphysical  and  Scientific  Knowledge — Limitations 


CONTENTS  IX 

of  Montaigne's  Scepticism — The  Art  of  Life — His  Theories  on 
Education — His  Style  and  Language — Summary — Pierre  Char- 
ron:  The  Traitt  des  Trois  VeriUs — The  TraiU  de  la  Sagesse 
— Its  Meaning — Guillaume  Du  Vair :  Orator  and  Moralist  - 

Pages  75-90 

BOOK   III 
SEVENTEENTH    CENTUEY 

GENERAL  VIEW 

Classical  Period  Proper — Division  into  Periods — First  Period :  Struggle 
between  Two  Ideals — Malherbe — The  Prtcieuscs — The  Academy 
— Vaugelas — Balzac — Second  Period:  Pascal — The  Classical  Ideal 
— L'Ecole  du  Naturel — Third  Period:  Decline — New  Ideals — 
Bayle — Fontenelle — Perrault — The  Quarrel  of  the  Ancients  and 
Moderns — Language Pages  91-9^ 

FIEST  PEEIOD  (1605-1659) 

CHAPTER  I.— POETRY 

Malherbe :  The  Reform  Exemplified  in  his  Work  rather  than  carried 
out  by  him — Affects  chiefly  Versification — His  Poetry — List  of 
his  Works  —  Mathurin  Regnier:  A  Belated  Representative  of 
the  16th  Century — His  Satires — His  Warfare  with  Malherbe — 
Another  Opponent  of  Malherbe — The"ophile  de  Viau — The  Hold 
de  Rambouittet — Catherine  de  Vivonne — Her  Ambition — History 
of  her  Salon — Divisions — First  Period — Second  Period — Voiture : 
His  Poems  and  Letters — Third  Period — Other  Salons — Later 
Prdcieuses — Good  and  Bad  Sides  of  Preciosity — Pseudo- epics — 
Georges  de  Scude"ry — Chapelain — Desmarets  de  Saint-Sorlin — 
Parodies — Paul  Scarron Pages  96-104 

CHAPTER  II.— DRAMA 

Popular  Drama  —  Alexandra  Hardy:  His  Tragedies  —  His  Tragi- 
comedies— His  Pastorals — Jean  de  Schelandre:  Tyr  et  Sidon — 
Importance  of  its  Preface — Theophile  de  Viau — Racan — Charac- 
teristics of  the  Popular  Drama — Jean  de  Mairet:  Sylvanire — 
Rules  of  the  Three  Unities  Formulated — Sophonisbe — Inaugura- 
tion of  the  Classical  Tragedy  on  the  Popular  Stage — Its  Main 
Characteristics — Rules  of  the  Three  Unities — Data — Partisans — 
Opponents — Triumph — Pierre  Corneille :  His  Life — His  Plays — 
Threefold  Division — The  Cid — Analysis — The  Cabal  against  the 
Cid — Horace — Cinna — Analysis — Pompee  —  Polyeucte — Analysis 


X  CONTENTS   ' 

— Corneille's  Psychology— His  Dramatic  System — His  Genius — 
His  Verse— Rotrou:  His  Chief  Plays — His  Originality 

Pages  104-117 

CHAPTER  III.— PROSE 

Franfois  de  Sales:  His  Method — Honore  d'Urfe :  The  Astree — Short 
Analysis — The  Heroic-gallant  Novel — De  Gomberville — De  la 
Calprenede — Madeleine  de  Scudery:  Her  Originality — Reaction — 
Charles  Sorel — The  French  Academy — Its  History — Vaugelas: 
The  Remarques  sur  la  Langue  Franqaise — Balzac:  His  Role — 
Ren6  Descartes :  His  Life — List  of  Chief  Works — The  Discours 
de  la  Mtthode — His  Philosophical  Method — The  Influence  of  his 
Ideas — Blaise  Pascal:  Port-Royal — Arnauld  (Antoine) — Jan- 
senism— Life  of  Pascal — The  Provinciates — The  Pens&s — Main 
Outline — Pascal  the  Creator  of  French  Classical  Prose 

Pages  117-126 

SECOND  PERIOD  (1659-1689) 

CHAPTER  I.— POETRY 

Nicolas  Boileau:  His  Life — Satires — Art  Pottiquc — Short  Analysis — 
Boileau's  Literary  Doctrine — His  Influence — Jean  de  la  Fontaine : 
His  Life — List  of  Works — The  Fables — Difficulty  of  Defining  La 
Fontaine's  Literary  Position — Difference  and  Similarity  with  his 
Contemporaries Pages  127-131 

CHAPTER  II.— DRAMA 

Philippe  Quinault — Moliere :  His  Life — Classified  List  of  Plays — The 
Prdcieuses  Ridicules — Tartuffe — Opposition  of  the  Religious  Party 
— Reasons — Analysis  —  The  Misanthrope  —  The  A  vare — Short 
Analysis — Aim  of  the  Play — The  Bourgeois  Gentilhomme — Georges 
Dandin — The  Femmes  Savantes — The  Ecole  des  Femmes — Moliere 's 
Genius — His  Position  in  the  World's  Literature — His  Style — 
Jean  Racine:  His  Life — List  of  Plays — Andromaque — Advent  of 
a  New  Tragic  Ideal — The  Plaideurs — Britannicus — Berenice — 
Bajazet — Mithridate — Iphigtnie — Phedre — Short  Analysis — The 
Cabal  against  Phedre — Athalie — Analysis — Racine's  Dramatic 
Genius — Comparison  with  Corneille — Local  Colour — Racine  no 
Precieux— His  Style  -  -  ,  -  -  -  -  Pages  132-145 

CHAPTER  III.— PROSE 

Cardinal  de  Retz :  His  Memoircs — La  Rochefoucauld :  His  Maxims — 
Central  Idea — His  Style — Madame  de  Sevigne:  Her  Letters — The 
Comtesse  de  la  Fayette :  The  Princesse  de  Cleves — Starting-point 


of  the  Modern  Psychological  Novel — The  Realistic  Novel  — 
Antoine  Furetiere — Pulpit  Oratory — Bossuet:  His  Life — Classified 
List  of  Works — Obituaries — The  Discours — The  Politique  tiree  de 
I' Ecriture  Sainte — Histoire  des  Variations — The  Maximes  sur  la 
Comddie — Bossuet's  Style — Louis  de  Bourdaloue:  Causes  of  his 
Success — Flechier — Protestants — Saurin  -  Pages  145-152 

THIRD  PERIOD  (1689-1715) 

CHAPTER  I.— POETRY 

Absence  of  Real  Poetry — Development  of  Literature  in  other  Direc- 
tions    Page  152 

CHAPTER  II.— DRAMA 

Antoine  de  la  Fosse — Regnard :  His  Merits — His  Style        Pages  152-153 

CHAPTER  III.— PROSE 

Jean  de  la  Bruyere:  The  Caracteres — Their  Value — Style — Pierre 
Bayle:  a  Precursor  of  the  Philosophes  of  the  18th  Century— 
The  Dictionnaire  Historique  et  Critique — Bayle's  Doctrine — The 
Quarrel  of  the  Ancients  and  Moderns — Charles  Perrault — Fon- 
tenelle — Boileau — Fenelon:  His  Life — Classified  List  of  Works — 
The  Maximes  des  Saints — Madame  Guyon  and  the  Quietists — Dis- 
pute with  Bossuet — The  Traite  de  I'^ducation  des  Fittes — The 
Aventures  de  Teltmaque — The  Plans  de  Gouvernement — Lettre  a, 
V Academic — Its  Importance — Jean  Massillon — The  Due  de  Saint- 
Simon:  His  Memoir es — His  Style  -  Pages  153-161 

BOOK  IV 

EIGHTEENTH   CENTURY 

GENERAL  VIEW 

Literature  Changes  its  Ground — Two  Great  Names — Voltaire  and 
Rousseau — Poetry:  Voltaire — Lebrun — Delille — Tragedy:  Vol- 
taire— Comedy;  Marivaux — Diderot — La  Chausse*e — Beaumar- 
chais — The  Novel:  Le  Sage  —  Prevost — Diderot — Rousseau  — 
Bernardin  de  St.  Pierre — Prose:  The  EncyclopeUie  •  Pages  162-167 

CHAPTER  I.— POETRY 

Jean  Baptiste  Rousseau:  Hollow  Rhetoric — Piron:  His  Epigrams 
— Voltaire:  His  Life — Character  of  his  Verse — The  Henriade — 
The  Pucelie — Houdart  de  la  Motte:  Critic  and  Poet — Lebrun: 


Xll  CONTENTS 

His  Excellence  in  the  Epigram — Delille:  Typical  of  his  Time — 
Poetry  by  Recipe — Nicolas  Gilbert — Parny — Andre  Chenier:  His 
Life — Greatest  Poet  of  the  18th  Century — Classification  of  his 
Works — Poems  of  Classical  Form — Didactic  Fragments — Odes 
aei  lambes — Language  and  Versification  -  -  Pages  167-175 

CHAPTER  II.— DRAMA 

Crebillon  Pere:  His  Chief  Tragedies — His  Dramatic  System — Houdart 
de  la  Motte — Voltaire :  Improvements  and  Innovations — Weak 
Psychology — Lack  of  Objectivity — Excellence  of  Workmanship — 
Chief  Plays — Marivaux:  Chief  Plays — Poetic  Fancy — Psycho- 
logical Analysis — Marivdudage — Le  Sage:  Crispin  Rival  de  son 
Maitre — Tur  caret — Destouches  —  Piron — Gresset — La  Chausse'e 
and  the  Comidie  Larmoyante — Diderot  and  the  Drame — Beau- 
marchais:  His  Life — The  Barbicr  de  Seville — The  Mariaye  de 
Figaro  —  Development  of  the  same  Types  in  the  Barbier  — 
Political  Significance Pages  175-181 

CHAPTER  III.— PROSE 

Le  Sage :  The  Diable  Boiteux  and  Gil  Bias — Marivaux :  Marianne — 
L'Abbe  Provost:  Manon  Lescaut — His  other  Novels — Voltaire: 
His  Contes — Diderot :  The  Religieuse  and  the  Neveu  de  Rameau — 
J.  J.  Rousseau  —  Bernardin  de  Saint  -  Pierre  :  His  Life — His 
Twofold  Importance — His  Chief  Works — Paul  et  Virginie — 
Unity  of  Prose  outside  Fiction — Fontenelle — A  Herald  of  the 
Encyclopedic  —  His  Life  —  The  Entretien  sur  la  Plurality  des 
Mondes — Its  Importance — Montesquieu:  His  Life — The  Lettrcs 
Persanes  —  The  Esprit  des  Lois  —  Meaning  of  the  Word  Loi — 
Rough  Summary — Appreciation  of  the  Work — Voltaire  as  a 
Historian:  The  Histoire  de  Charles  XII — The  Siecle  de  Louis  XIV 
— The  Essai  sur  les  Mceurs — Elimination  of  Providence — Progress 
of  Reason  —  Voltaire's  Philosophical  Writings  Proper  —  His 
Central  Idea — His  Correspondence — Summing-up — Vauvenargues 
— The  Encyclopedic — Its  Scheme — Its  Watchword — Diderot :  His 
Life — His  Philosophic  Writings — His  Salons — His  Literary  Im- 
portance —  D' AJembert  —  Condillac  —  Helvetius  —  D'Holbach — 
Grimm — Turgot — Condorcet — Jean  Jacques  Rousseau :  His  Life 
— List  of  his  Works — His  Leading  Idea — Unity  of  his  Work — 
The  Discours  sur  I'Origine  et  les  Fondements  de  Vlnegaliti  parmi 
les  Hommes — The  Emile — Analysis — Julie  ou  La  Nouvelle  Heloise 
— Awakening  of  Sentimentality — The  Contrat  Social — The  Con- 
fessions— Minor  Works — His  Great  Influence  on  Literature — 
Buffon:  His  Life — The  Histoire  NatureUe — Salons — Mme  du 
Deffand— Mme  Geoffrin — Mile  de  Lespinasse — Political  Orators 
— Mirabeau — Robespierre,  £c.  ....  Pages  182-214 


CONTENTS  Xlll 

BOOK  V 

THE   TRANSITION    (1789-1820) 

GENERAL  VIEW 

Two  Great  Names  —  Mrae  de  Stael  and  Chateaubriand  —  Mme  de 
StaeTs  Importance — Her  Definition  of  Romanticism — Chateau- 
briand's Work  a  Complement  of  Hers — He  realizes  her  Theories 

Pages  215-216 

CHAPTER  I.— POETRY 

Beranger :    His   Chief   Chansons  —  His   Ideas  —  His   Qualities  as  a 

Popular  Poet Pages  216-218 

CHAPTER  II.— DRAMA 

Delavigne:  His  Poetry — His  Plays — Appreciation          -         -     Page  218 

CHAPTER  III.— PROSE 

Madame  de  Stael :  Her  Life — List  of  Principal  Works — The  Littfra- 
ture — Delphine  and  Corinne — De  VAttemagne — The  Considerations 
sur  la  Revolution — Her  Influence — Chateaubriand:  His  Life — 
List  of  his  Chief  Works — The  Essai  sur  les  Revolutions — Atala — 
The  Genie  du  Christianisme — Rent — The  Natchez — The  Martyrs — 
The  Itineraire  —  The  Memovres  d'  Outre  -  Tombe  —  His  Literary 
Rdle — Appreciation  of  his  Genius — Joubert — Joseph  de  Maistre: 
Works  —  Ultramontanism  —  De  Bonald — Benjamin  Constant — 
Xavier  de  Maistre — Courier:  Life — Writings — The  Pamphleteer — 
Lamennais:  Life — Works — Different  Phases  in  his  Development 

Pages  219-232 

BOOK  VI 

NINETEENTH  CENTURY 

GENERAL  VIEW 

Division  into  Periods — First  Period:  Romanticism — Definition  of 
Romanticism — Victor  Hugo's  Manifesto — Its  Scope  and  Effects — 
Beginnings — Achievements — The  Second  Period :  Realism  and 
Naturalism — Definition  —  The  Parnassiens — The  Novel — Third 
Period :  Difficulty  of  determining  its  exact  Nature — Poetry — The 
Decadents  and  Symbolistes — The  Novel — Foreign  Influences — The 
Drama Pages  233-241 


XIV  CONTENTS 

FIRST  PERIOD   (1820-1850) 
CHAPTER  L— POETRY 

Lamartine :  His  Life — Principal  Works — The  Meditations — Romantic 
Lyricism  founded — No  Progress  in  Later  Work — Nouvelles  M4di- 
tations — Harmonies — Jocelyn — Chute  d'un  Ange — Prose  Works — 
Alfred  de  Vigny:  Chief  Works — Poemes  Antiques  et  Modernes — 
The  Destinies — Prose  Works — Chatterton  and  Cinq-Mars — De 
Vigny 's  Philosophy — Victor  Hugo:  Life — Classification  of  his 
Works— The  Odes  et  Ballades— The  Orientates— Other  Lyrical 
Collections — The  Chdtiments — The  Contemplations — The  Legende 
des  Siecles — Later  Verse — Dramas — Cromwell — Its  Preface — 
Victor  Hugo's  Dramatic  System — Exemplified  in  all  subsequent 
Plays — Analysis  of  Hernani  and  of  Ray  Bias — The  Burgraves 
— Prose  Writings — Notre -Dame  de  Paris — Lesser  Fiction — Les 
Miserables — Analysis — Other  Novels — Victor  Hugo's  Genius — De 
Musset:  Life — List  of  Chief  Works  —  The  Contes  d'Espagne  et 
rf'/taZie— The  Spectacle  dans  un  Fauteuil — The  Four  Nuits — The 
Confessions — His  Comedies — His  Lyric  Genius  —  His  Style  — 
Gautier:  Classified  List  of  Chief  Works  —  Cult  of  Form  and 
Colour — Art  for  Art's  Sake— The  Emaux  et  Camees — His  Prose 
Works  —  Minor  Romantic  Poets — Mme  Desbordes-Valmore — 
Brizeux — Barbier — Moreau Pages  241-258 

CHAPTER  II.— DRAMA 

Victor  Hugo  already  Discussed — Dumas  Pere:  His  Life — Principal 
Plays — Appreciation  as  a  Dramatist — Scribe:  Chief  Plays — No 
Dramatist — Great  Skill  in  Scenic  Art — Ponsard:  The  Scale  du 
Bon  Sens — Passes  over  to  Romanticism — Value  of  his  Plays 

Pages  258-261 
CHAPTER  III— PROSE 

Victor  Hugo  already  Considered — Historical  Romances — Dumas  Pere : 
His  Chief  Novels  and  their  Value — Main  Divisions  of  Romantic 
Fiction — George  Sand:  Her  Life — Classified  List  of  Works — 
Novels  of  the  First,  Second,  Third,  and  Fourth  Periods — Com- 
bination of  Idealism  and  Realism — Early  Realists — Stendhal: 
Founder  of  the  Psychological  Novel — Me"rimee:  Chief  Works — 
Starts  as  a  Romanticist — Goes  over  to  Realism  in  his  Nouvelles — 
His  Position — His  Remarkable  Objectivity — Honore  de  Balzac: 
Founder  of  Realism — His  Life — The  Comedie  Hwmaine — Classi- 
fied List  of  the  Chief  Novels — His  Creative  Genius — His  System 
and  Method  —  Phantasms  of  Romance  —  Lesser  Novelists  and 
Writers  of  Short  Stories — Nodier — Eugene  Sue — Souvestre — 
Karr — Murger —  History — Thierry :  Works — Appreciation — Gui- 
zot :  His  Life — His  Chief  Works — Leading  Ideas  and  Method — 


CONTENTS  XV 

Thiers :  Realism  in  History — Mignet :  The  Histoire  de  la  Evolu- 
tion Frangaise — Michelet :  His  Life — List  of  Works — The  His- 
toire de  France — The  Histoire  de  la  Revolution — Evocation  of  the 
Past — De  Tocqueville — Literary  Criticism — Sainte-Beuve:  Classi- 
fied List  of  his  Works — Importance  of  his  Poetry — His  System  of 
Literary  Criticism — Villemain:  Historical  Criticism — Quinet — 
The  Philosophers  —  Victor  Cousin  —  Pulpit  Oratory  —  Lacor- 
daire Pages  261-276 

SECOND  PERIOD  (1850-1900) 

CHAPTER  I.— POETRY 

The  Parnassiens — De  Banville :  Classified  List  of  his  Works — Art  for 
the  sake  of  Artificiality — Excessive  Cult  of  Poetic  Form,  and 
especially  of  Rime — Baudelaire :  Decadence  and  Satanisme — The 
Fleurs  du  Mai — Leconte  de  Lisle :  List  of  Works — Leader  of  the 
Parnassiens  —  Flawless  Plasticity  —  Objectivity  —  Philosophy — 
Sully  Prudhomme :  His  Poems — Begins  with  a  Delicate  Analysis 
of  the  Inner  Life — Passes  over  to  Philosophic  Themes — Eugene 
Manuel :  Popular  Themes  and  Poetry  of  the  Lower  Classes — His 
Works — Coppee:  His  Works  Classified — Continues  Manuel — De 
Heredia :  A  Disciple  of  Leconte  de  Lisle — Colour — Originality  in 
the  Sonnet — Decadents  and  Symbolistes — Verlaine :  His  Works — 
His  Innovations  in  French  Lyrical  Poetry — Importance  of  his  Art 
Podtique — Appreciation  of  his  Poetry — Symbolism  and  Cymbalism 
— Mallarme:  Sybilline  Jargon — De  Regnier — Moreas  and  the 
Ecole  Romane — Verhaeren — Kahn  and  the  Vers  Libre — Viele- 
Griffin — Maeterlinck  as  a  Lyric  Poet — Outside  Symbolism — 
Labor— Rollinat— Richepin Pages  277-288 

CHAPTER  II.— DRAMA 

Comtdie  de  Mceurs — Dumas  Fils :  Chief  Plays — Problem  Plays — Skill 
as  a  Playwright — Brilliant  Dialogue — Augier :  His  Chief  Plays — 
His  Solid  Good  Sense — Moral  Scope  of  his  Plays — Labiche — 
Sardou :  List  of  his  Principal  Plays — A  Second  Scribe — His  Skill 
in  the  Creation  and  Manipulation  of  Intrigue — His  Plays  rank 
very  Low  as  Literature — Brilliance  of  Dialogue — Pailleron:  The 
Monde  oil  Von  s'ennuie  —  Henri  Becque — De  Curel — Lemaitre 
— Maeterlinck :  The  Intruse — Rostand :  Cyrano  de  Bergeron 

Pages  289-293 

CHAPTER  III.— PROSE 

Flaubert:  the  Initiator  of  Naturalism — His  Chief  Novels — Madame 
Bovary — Salammbti — Partly  a  Romanticist — Objectivity — The 
brothers  De  Goncourt :  List  of  their  Works— Their  Preference  of 


XVI  CONTENTS 

the  Odd  to  the  Typical — Germinic  Lacerteux  and  its  Dangerous 
Principle — Their  Impressionist  Style — Daudet :  Classified  List  of 
his  Novels — In  how  far  a  Naturalist — Character  and  Originality 
of  his  Fiction — Maupassant:  List  of  his  Works — The  Short-story — 
Idealism — Feuillet — About — Cherbuliez — Anatole  France — Loti : 
Picturesque,  Subjective,  and  Sentimental  Novel — Bourget  and 
the  Psychological  Novel — Lesser  Writers  of  Fiction — Erckmann 
and  Chatrian — Fabre — Droz — Theuriet — Huysmans — Ohnet — 
Rod — Paul  Margueritte — Renan:  His  Life — List  of  Principal 
Works — His  Importance — Criticism — Taine :  His  Chief  Works — 
His  System  of  Literary  Criticism — Race,  Conditions  in  General, 
Moment  —  Weak  Side  of  his  System  —  Brunetiere:  Theory  of 
Evolution — Chief  Works — Lemaitre — His  Subjectivity — Anatole 
France — Blending  of  Sympathy  and  Delicate  Irony — Melchior  de 
Vogue1:  The  Neo  -  Christian  Movement  —  History:  Fustel  de 
Coulanges — Characteristics  of  his  Method  -  -  Pagea  293-307 

INDEX 809 


CM643) 


SHORT  HISTORY  OF 
FRENCH   LITERATURE 


INTRODUCTORY  CHAPTER 

Origin  of  the  French  Language. — French,  like  Italian, 
Spanish,  Portuguese,  Proven<jal,  Roumanian,  and  Rheto- 
Romance,  is  derived  by  a  long  succession  of  transformations 
from  popular  Latin,  which  was  spoken  over  all  the  provinces 
or  colonies  of  the  Imperium  Romanum  or  Romania. 

This  popular  Latin  speech  was  introduced  into  France,  or 
Gaul  as  it  was  then  called,  by  the  soldiers  of  Julius  Caesar, 
who  finally  reduced  the  country  in  51  B.C.  In  his  train 
followed  merchants  and  colonists,  and  an  occupation  began 
which  lasted  for  four  and  a  half  centuries. 

Already  in  the  7th  century  popular  Latin  or  Romance  had 
assumed  distinct  peculiarities,  according  to  the  countries  in 
which  it  was  spoken.  As  spoken  in  Gaul  it  is  known  by 
the  name  of  Gallo-Roman  or  Gallo-Romance,  not  to  be  con- 
founded with  Low  Latin,  which  is  not  a  spoken  but  a  written 
language. 

By  Low  Latin  is  meant  literary  Latin  as  written  by  the 
uneducated,  who  made  mistakes  analogous  to  those  of  the 
modern  school-boy.  All  the  scholars  of  the  Middle  Ages  wrote 
in  this  dog  Latin,  which  only  disappeared  in  the  16th  century, 
thanks  to  the  great  humanists,  who  resuscitated  the  language 
of  the  great  Roman  classic  writers.  The  first  thing  Gallo- 
Romance  did  was  to  oust  Keltic,  the  language  of  the  Gauls, 
the  original  inhabitants.  This  transformation  was  effected  all 
the  more  rapidly,  as  the  Gauls  had  never  formed  a  nation  or 

(  M  r,  i : ;  )  A 


2  INTRODUCTORY   CHAPTER 

homogeneous  whole  capable  of  offering  systematic  resistance 
to  the  invaders,  and  as,  moreover,  they  were  intelligent  enough 
and  sufficiently  civilized  to  recognize  the  moral  and  intellectual 
superiority  of  Rome  and  to  profit  by  it.  Their  native  idiom 
vanished  as  if  by  magic,  leaving  only  very  slight  traces,  more 
particularly  as  regards  pronunciation.1 

This  state  of  things  was  disturbed  by  the  Germanic  in- 
vasions in  the  5th  century,  by  which  date  Keltic  had  absolutely 
vanished,  while  Greek,  which  the  Romans  had  found  estab- 
lished at  Marseille,  whither  it  had  been  brought  by  Phocean 
colonists,  only  survived  till  the  first  century  of  our  era. 

These  Germanic  invaders  consisted  of  the  West  Goths  in 
Aquitaine,  the  Burgundians  in  Burgundy,  the  Salian  Franks 
in  the  north-east,  and  the  Austrasian  Franks  in  the  east.  In 
the  same  way  and  for  the  same  reasons  as  the  Kelts  had 
abandoned  their  language  in  favour  of  Latin,  so  did  these 
Germanic  tribes  in  turn  abandon  theirs  in  favour  of  Gallo- 
Romance.  The  same  fate  befell  the  Normans  under  Rollo, 
who  followed  four  centuries  later  (912)  and  settled  along  the 
Lower  Seine.  Yet  the  Germanic  elements2  in  the  French 
language  are  not  inconsiderable.  It  has  been  computed  that 
about  900  of  these  words  penetrated  into  Gallo- Romance, 
though  a  goodly  number  were  lost  in  the  passage  to  modern 
French. 

On  the  other  hand,  Gallo-Romance  lost  ground  in  Armorica 
(the  present  Brittany),  where  certain  Keltic  tribes,  driven  from 

1  Excluding  a  goodly  number  of  place-names,  and  some  words  of  later 
(Breton)  introduction,  the  following  are  among  the  commonest  words  of 
Gallic  origin,  most  of  them  having  already  been  adopted  by  Latin:  alouette, 
arpent,  bee,  bouleau,  claie,  lieue,  marne,  saie,  truand,  vassal,  &c. 

2  Apart  from  names  of  places  and  persons,  and  the  other  German  words 
introduced  in  the  16th  century  (chiefly  at  the  time  of  the  Thirty  Years' 
War),  and   gradually  ever  since,  the  Germanic  element  in  the  French 
language  can  be  classed  as  follows : — 

(«)  Two  adverbs  (trap  and  gukre). 

(b)  Terms  of  war  (adouber,  blesser,  epier,  eperon,  epieu,  fourreau,  the 
word  guerre  itself,  gonfanon,  yuetter,  haubert,  heaume,  &c.). 

(c)  Terms   pertaining   to   jurisdiction   and    administration    (alien,    ban, 
f chanson,  fief ,  gage,  garantir,  marechal,  saiair,  senechal,  &c. ). 

(d)  Miscellaneous   (blanc,  bleu,  frais,  gris,  honte,  loge,  orgueil,  renard, 
riche,  &c.). 


INTRODUCTORY   CHAPTER  3 

Britain  by  the  Saxons,  settled  in  the  5th  century  and  reintro- 
duced  a  Keltic  dialect. 

The  same  thing  happened  in  the  6th  century,  when  the 
Vascons  coming  from  Spain  reinstalled  their  language,  Iberian 
(now  called  Basque),  on  the  territory  which  they  still  in  part 
occupy. 

On  Gallo-Eomance  soil  originally  one  common  language  was 
spoken,  which  in  course  of  time,  and  according  to  place,  diversi- 
fied itself  into  an  infinite  variety  of  local  speeches,  from  south 
to  north  and  from  east  to  west. 

Certain  more  or  less  distinct  peculiarities  enable  us  to  divide 
these  different  dialects  into  two  main  groups : 

(1)  the  Langue  d'oc  in  the  south, 

(2)  the  Langue  d'oil  in  the  north, 

both  so  called  according  to  the  custom  existing  in  the  Middle 
Ages  of  designating  a  language  according  to  the  word  it 
employed  to  express  affirmation. 

A  line  drawn  from  the  mouth  of  the  Charente  to  the 
Alps,  and  passing  through  Limoges,  Clermont-Ferrand,  and 
Grenoble,  forms,  roughly  speaking,  the  boundary-line  between 
the  two  groups. 

(1)  The  Dialects  of  the  "Langue  d'Oc"  have  now  sunk  to 
the  rank  of  patois,  i.e.  of  spoken  dialects  as  distinguished  from 
written  dialects.  This  was  not  the  case  in  the  early  Middle 
Ages,  when  the  langue  d'oc  was  not  only  the  rival  but  the 
superior  in  many  respects  of  the  langue  d'oil. 

The  literature  of  the  langue  d'oc,  or  Provencal  as  it  is 
now  called  from  one  of  its  chief  dialects,  already  existed  in  the 
llth  century,  but  its  golden  age  is  the  12th  century,  the 
period  of  the  famous  lyric  poets,  the  troubadours,1  whose  fame 
spread  far  beyond  the  limits  of  their  native  land,  exercising 
great  influence  on  the  poetry  of  the  north  of  France,  and  on 
that  of  Italy  and  Germany.  This  brilliant  southern  literature 

1  Derived  from  the  verb  trobare  =  to  find,  to  invent.  In  the  langue  d'ott 
the  word  became  trouvere,  which  is  an  accusative  form  (tropatorem). 


4  INTRODUCTORY  CHAPTER 

disappeared,  yielding  before  the  langue  d'o'il,  in  the  middle  of 
Ihe  13th  century,  as  a  result  of  the  crusade  against  the 
Albigeois  or  heretics  of  the  south.  In  modern  times  a  literary 
renaissance  has  been  attempted;  poets  of  rare  talent,  such  as 
Jasmin1  (1798-1864),  Roumanille  (1818-1891),  Aubanel  (1829- 
1886),  and  above  all,  Mistral  (born  in  1830),  have  written 
remarkable  poems  in  their  native  idiom,  without,  however, 
really  succeeding  in  raising  Prove^al  to  the  level  of  a  literary 
language. 2 

(2)  The  Dialects  of  the  "  Langue  d'Oi'l  ".—Before  the  end 
of  the  7th  century  general  linguistic  differences  appeared  in  the 
north,  sufficient  to  cause  the  language  of  that  region  to  be 
regarded  as  a  new  language.  In  659,  Saint  Mummolin  was 
appointed  in  succession  to  Saint  Eloi,  bishop  of  Noyon,  because 
he  spoke  not  only  German,  but  also  Romance.8  Other  testi- 
monies exist  to  the  same  effect  in  the  8th  and  9th  centuries, 
and  about  the  middle  of  the  9th  century  we  have  a  striking 
example  of  this  Romance  of  the  north  in  the  famous  Serments 
de  Strasbourg  (14th  Feb.,  842),  which  have  been  preserved  by 
Nithard  in  his  Latin  history.  In  this  famous  document  the 
langue  d'oil,  though  still  wavering  on  the  border-line  between 
Latin  and  French,  appears  fixed  in  its  general  traits.  The 
oldest  texts  in  the  langue  d'oil,  apart  from  the  Oaths,  are  of  the 
same  century:  the  Sequence  de  Sainte  Eulalie,  in  twenty -five 
lines,  and  a  fragment  of  a  homily  on  Jonas  partly  in  Latin; 
in  the  10th  century  we  have  a  poem  of  greater  length,  La  Vie 
de  St.  Leger,  considerably  altered  by  a  southern  transcriber;  in 
the  llth  century  the  Vie  de  St.  Alexis;  later,  the  Pelerinage  de 
Charlemagne,  and  the  Chanson  de  Roland,  the  first  great  literary 
work  in  French.  From  the  12th  century  texts  abound. 

This  old  French  literature  was  not  peculiar  to  any  particular 
province.  Each  dialect  had  its  own  literature,  which  remained 

1  Jasmin's  name  will  be  familiar  to  readers  of  Longfellow,  who  translated 
one  of  his  best  pieces,  The  Blind  Girl  of  Castel- Cuttle. 

2  The  same  is  being  attempted  for  Walloon  by  the  Socitte  Ltigeoi&e  de 
Literature  Wattonne  (founded  in  1856). 

3  "  Quid  prcevalebat  non  tantum  in  teutonica,  sed  etiam  in  romaiM  lingua" 
(Acta  Sanctorum  Bdyii  Selecta,  iv.  403). 


INTRODUCTORY  CHAPTER  5 

independent,  or  nearly  so,  till  the  14th  century.     The  chief 
dialects  of  the  langue  d'ail  are : 

(a)  Francian  or  French  proper,  in  the  province  of  the 
Ile-de-France. 

(b)  Burgundian,  Franc-Comtois,  Lorrainian,  and  Champe- 
nois,  in  the  east. 

(c)  Picard  and  Walloon  in  the  north-east. 

(d)  Norman  in  the  north-west. 

(e)  Poitevin,  Angevin,  Saintongeais,  in  the  west. 

(/)  And  out  of  France,  Anglo-Norman,  or  Norman  as  it 
developed  in  England  after  its  introduction  by  William  the 
Conqueror  and  his  followers. 

But  already  in  the  12th  century,  the  dialect  of  the  Ile-de- 
France,  began  to  prevail  as  the  standard  literary  language. 
This  was  not  due  to  its  superiority,  but  to  the  political  pre- 
dominance of  that  province,  and  to  the  extension  of  the  influence 
of  Paris,  its  capital.  This  progress  continued  in  the  13th,  and 
may  be  said  to  have  been  complete  at  the  beginning  of  the 
15th  century,  when  the  other  dialects  only  remained  as  spoken 
languages,  and  even  that  only  among  the  lower  classes. 

To  resume,  modern  French  may  be  called  a  development  of 
the  Romance  dialect  of  the  Ile-de-France,  which  itself  is  a  con- 
tinuation and  gradual  transformation,  under  certain  climatic 
and  racial  influences,  of  the  popular  Latin  introduced  into  that 
part  of  Gaul  during  the  four  and  a  half  centuries  of  the 
Koman  occupation. 

The  further  development  of  the  dialect  of  the  Ile-de-France, 
from  this  time  the  literary  language,  will  be  traced  in  the 
course  of  the  book. 


BOOK  I 

MIDDLE   AGES 


GENERAL  VIEW 

The  three  main  characteristics  of  medieval  literature  are: 

(a)  Its  uniformity  and  lack  of  individuality.     Speaking 
generally,  nearly  all  the  Chansons  de  Geste,  Fableaux,  &c.,  might 
have   been  the  work  of   the  same  author,  so  great  is  their 
similarity.     Commines  in  prose  and  Villon  in  poetry  are  ex- 
ceptions, no  doubt,  but  they  come  quite  at  the  end  of  our 
period,  and  instead  of  summarizing  the  peculiarities  of  medieval 
literature,  they  may  be  said  to  announce  those  of  the  Renais- 
sance.    Neither  should  it  be  forgotten  that  Villon  left  no 
disciples,  and   that   those  who  did   were   his   followers,    the 
grands  rhtioriqueurs,  Molinet,  Meschinot,  and  Cretin. 

(b)  Its  defiance  of  nature,  the  outcome  of  the  teachings  of 
primitive  Christianity.     In  this  respect  Jean  de  Meung  is  an 
exception. 

(c)  The  almost  total  absence  of  any  sense  of  art  and  form, 
and  its  replacement  by  set  phrases  and  recurring  formulas. 

Although  the  literature  of  the  Middle  Ages  already  in  the 
llth  century  produces  works  of  real  merit,  and  among  the 
number  the  famous  epic  of  Roland,  its  golden  age  is  the  12th 
century,  the  century  of  epic  poetry.  In  the  Chansons  de  Geste 
proper,  those  of  the  National  Epic,  the  warlike  and  feudal 
ideal  is  expressed ;  in  the  Breton  Epic,  the  Epic  of  Antiquity, 
and  likewise  in  lyrical  poetry,  arose  new  chivalric  ideas,  the 
new  courtesy  and  homage  to  women.  The  drama  leaves  the 
church,  and  prose  makes  its  first  appearance  in  sermons  and 
translations. 


EPIC    POETRY  7 

In  the  13th  century  literary  activity  hardly  diminishes,  but 
different  tendencies  set  in.  The  epic  vein  is  exhausted,  and 
the  Chansons  de  Geste  are  in  full  decadence.  Against  the  high 
ideal  of  chivalry  and  its  overstrained  sentiment  the  positive 
intellect  and  mocking  temper  of  the  people  reacted.  The 
esprit  gaulois 1  had  its  revenge ;  a  satirical  and  didactic  litera- 
ture arose  in  the  Fableaux,  the  Romance  of  Reynard  the  Fox,  and 
the  second  part  of  the  Romance  of  the  Rose.  The  prevailing 
taste  is  for  moral  allegory.  The  drama  is  still  feeling  its  way, 
and  prose  asserts  itself  in  the  works  of  two  great  chroniclers, 
Villehardouin  and  Joinville. 

The  14th  century  is  an  arid  waste.  The  social  and  intel- 
lectual edifice  of  the  Middle  Ages  slowly  falls  to  ruins;  writers 
only  repeat  those  who  have  preceded  them,  and  replace 
imagination  by  ingenuities  and  technical  juggleries.  The 
theatre  is  not  yet  definitely  constituted,  and  in  prose  one  great 
name  only  is  found,  that  of  Froissart,  the  famous  chronicler. 

In  the  15th  century,  in  spite  of  a  vigorous  effort  in  dramatic 
literature  (mysteries,  moralities,  farces,  and  sotties),  and  the 
names  of  two  great  writers  like  Villon  and  Commines  in  verse 
and  prose,  the  decadence  that  had  manifested  itself  in  the 
previous  century  continues  in  other  branches.  The  minds  of 
men  were  ripe  to  accept  the  new  influences  of  the  Kenaissance. 


CHAPTER   I 

EPIC  POETRY 

Epic  poetry  in  French  literature  is  generally  divided  into 
three  large  groups : 2 

1  To  give  a  definition  of  v/hat  is  meant  by  esprit  gaulois,  in  a  concise 
form,  is  an  impossibility.  In  its  most  general  aspect  it  may  be  described 
as  a  revolt  against  and  a  parody  of  authority  and  respectability,  a  wish 
to  shock  Mrs.  Grundy,  which  too  often  results  in  coarseness  and  even 
obscenity. 

2 This  division  dates  back  to  the  13th  century: 

"  Ne  sont  que  trois  matieres  a  nut  home  antandant 
De  France  et  dc  Bretayne  et  de  Rome  la  grant ". 

— Jean  Bodel,  Cfwmson  des  Saisnes. 


MIDDLE   AGES 

(1)  The  French  or  National  Epic.,* 

(2)  The  Epic  of  Antiquity,  (fa 

(3)  The  Breton  Epic  or  "Epopee  Courtoise". 

The  poems  of  the  French  Epic  are  known  as  Chansons  de 
Geste,1  or  songs  of  the  deeds  and  achievements  (gesta)  of  some 
heroic  person;  those  of  the  Epic  of  Antiquity  and  of  the 
Breton  Epic  as  Romans  d'Aventure.  In  a  few  of  the  poems  of 
the  third  group  Breton  and  Byzantine  sources  are  mixed, 
while  in  a  few  others  the  basis  are  events  of  the  time,  or 
national  history  or  legend. 

By  far  the  most  important  is  the  French  Epic,  which  was 
the  first  to  develop.  The  two  others  are  later  and  artificial. 

(1)  The  French  or  National  Epic.— It  has  been  conclu- 
sively proved  that  the  French  Epic  is  of  Germanic  origin,  but 
it  is  necessary  to  specify  what  is  exactly  meant  by  this  state- 
ment. From  the  earliest  times  it  had  been  the  custom  of  the 
Germans  to  sing  their  heroes'  deeds  in  epic  recitals.  After 
their  invasion  of  Gaul  in  the  5th  century  and  their  conversion 
to  Christianity,  they  were  rapidly  assimilated  by  the  Gallo- 
Romans  whom  they  had  conquered;  but  the  Germanic  blood, 
acting  like  a  leaven,  as  it  were,  on  the  new  amalgamated  race, 
called  forth  similar  epic  songs  in  the  Gallo-Roman  tongue 
from  the  5th  to  the  10th  century.  To  quote  a  famous  philo- 
logist :  "  The  French  heroic  epic  is  the  product  of  the  fusion 
of  the  Germanic  spirit,  in  a  Romance  form,  with  the  new 
Christian  civilization  of  France  ". 

(a)  Of  this,  The  First  Epic  Period,  not  a  single  monument 
has  come  down  to  us,  but  the  Latin  chronicles  of  the  time  are 
full  of  epic  legends  referring  to  the  deeds  of  the  Merovingians. 
All  the  events  of  which  the  French  Epopee  has  preserved  the 
memory  fall  within  this,  the  only  period  of  spontaneous  epical 
production. 

We  must  not  suppose,  however,  that  the  poems  which  arose 
in  the  space  intervening  between  the  5th  and  10th  centuries 
were  like  the  Chansons  de  Geste  such  as  we  now  know  them. 

1  Later  geste  also  meant  cycle. 


EPIC   POETRY  9 

They  were  historical  ballads  or  cantilenes,  songs  which  were 
contemporary,  or  nearly  so,  with  the  events  which  they 
recalled  and  celebrated.  They  were  essentially  lyric-epic  pro- 
ductions. Gradually  as  the  events  receded  the  lyrical  element 
yielded  to  the  epic,  and  the  Chansons  de  Geste  were  developed 
from  these  songs.  We  may  regard  the  9th  century  as  the 
period  of  the  transformation  of  the  cantilenes  into  the  Chansons 
de  Geste. 

(b)  The   Second  Period  of  the  French  Epic  reaches  from 
050-1120.     The  three  oldest  epic  poems  which  have  come 

down  to  us — th&r-Qhanson  de  Rolajid,  Le  Ptterinaqe  deCharle- 
jnaane,  and  Le  Roi  Louis — belong  to  this*~penocl.  They  are  not 
ongmaf,  buT"  iiiaiiipulil'lllOns  of  old  themes  sung  in  the  first 
period.  The  Chanson  de  Roland  which  we  possess  is  certainly 
not  the  one  which  Taillefer  the  minstrel  sang  at  Hastings,  yet 
the  original  epic  matter  in  these  poems  is  on  the  whole  free 
from  heterogeneous  and  extraneous  elements.  They  were  fixed 
by  writing  #t  a  time  when  the  original  epic  spirit  could  be  felt, 
though  its  creative  power  was  dead.  It  is  for  that  very  reason 
that  they  are  the  finest  chansons  of  the  French  Epic. 

From  the  earliest  times  the  epic  matter  tended  to  centralize 
about  one  person,  Chn.r1o.ma.g-ne,  the  champion  of  Christianity 
and  chivalry  against  the  hated  Saracen;  yet  at  the  same  time 
local  heroes  were  not  neglected,  as  we  see  from  the  poems  on 
Girard,  Raoul,  and  Guillaume. 

(c)  In  the  poems  of  The  Third  Period  (1100-1180)  additions 
and  inventions  are  freely  made  to  meet  the  requirements  of 
the  audience.     Originally,  and  up  to  the   end  of   the  llth 
century,  those  epic  songs  were  sung  by  the  minstrel  or  jongleur 
as  the  warriors  marched  to  battle,  but  in  the  12th  century 
they  became  a  mere  pastime  for  the  lords  at  meals  and  fes- 
tivals.    The  trouvcre  or  poet,  who  originally  was  sometimes 
a  warrior,  gradually  tends  to  become  a  man  of  letters.     He 
rarely   sings   his   own   compositions,  but  sells   them  to   the 
jongleur.     For  the  profession  to  be  a  lucrative  one  both  for 
poet  and  minstrel  they  must  please  the  audience,  and  the 
original  epic  matter  being  exhausted,  novel  themes  must  be 


10  MIDDLE   AGES 

found;  fancy  and  invention,  encouraged  by  the  Epic  of  Anti- 
quity and  the  Breton  Epic,  drown  more  and  more  the  popular 
element. 

(d)  During  The  Fourth  Period  (1150-1360)  these  tendencies 
were  aggravated.  It  was  the  cyclical  period  proper;  all  the 
heroes,  and  consequently  all  the  preceding  chansons,  were 
arbitrarily  connected  by  genealogical  links  on  the  assumption 
that  we  are  more  likely  to  be  interested  in  a  person  related 
to  others  whom  we  already  know.  As  early  as  the  13th 
century  the  greatest  part  of  the  Chansons  de  Geste  had  by  this 
process  been  grouped  into  three  principal  cycles:1 

(i)  The  Geste  du  Hoi,  dealing  with  the  Carolingian  triad 
Pe'pin,  Charles,  and  Louis,  also  called  Geste  de  Charlemagne, 
after  the  central  figure. 

(ii)  The  Geste  de  Garin  de  Monglane,  known  also  as  the 
Geste  de  Guillaume,  the  subject  of  which  is  the  defence  of  the 
south  of  France  against  the  infidels. 

(iii)  The  Geste  de  Boon  de  Mayence,  on  the  feudal  wars. 

A  certain  number  of  poems,  however,  resisted  the  attraction 
of  the  great  cycles.  Such  is  Raoul  de  Cambrai,  based  on  his- 
torical events  and  representing  the  wars  of  the  feudal  barons 
among  themselves;  but  the  most  important  of  this  kind  are 
the  five  songs  which  describe  the  struggle  between  the  houses 
of  Metz  and  of  Bordeaux,  forming  a  small  cycle  known  as  the 
Cycle  de  Lorraine. 

The  first  crusade  likewise  called  forth  additional  poems, 
forming  the  Cycle  des  Croisades,  the  last  to  develop.  They  are 
rather  historical  than  epic. 

Excepting  the  Combat  des  Trente  (1351)  and  the  Chronigue 
de  Du  Guesdin  (1384),  barren  attempts  to  revive  the  epopee 

1  Compare  the  following  lines  from  Girard  de  Viennc,  a  chanson  dating 
from  1210-1220:— 

"  N'ot  (eut)  que  trois  gcstes  en  France  la  garnie: 
Dou  roi  de  France  est  la  plus  seiynoric; 
Et  I'autre  apres,  bien  est  droit  que  vous  die, 
£st  de  Doon  <i  la  barbejlorie  .  .  . 
La  tierce  geste  .  .  . 
Fust  de  Garin  de  Montglane  au  vis  (visage)  fier  ", 


EPIC  POETRY  11 

at  the  time  of  the  wars  against  England,  and  one  or  two 
others,  no  more  Chansons  de  Geste  were  composed  after  the 
fourth  period,  and  soon  after,  those  that  existed  were  no  longer 
sung.  They  were  still  copied  into  verse  up  till  the  end  of  the 
15th  century,  but  already  before  the  middle  of  that  century 
scribes  began  to  turn  into  prose  those  that  still  offered  some 
interest. 

In  the  earlier  Chansons  de  Geste  the  decasyllabic  verse  is 
used,  generally  with  the  caesura  after  the  fourth  syllable.  The 
poems  are  divided  into  sections  or  laisses  of  varying  length, 
the  lines  of  each  laisse  being  united  by  a  single  assonance  or 
vowel-rime.  Towards  the  end  of  the  12th  century  assonance 
was  abandoned  in  favour  of  full  rime,  and  the  decasyllabic 
line  replaced  by  the  Alexandrine  or  line  of  twelve  syllables. 
In  some  chansons  the  two  are  mixed. 

A  marked  peculiarity  of  many  of  these  epic  songs  is  the 
repetition  of  the  same  idea  or  incident  under  a  different  form 
in  consecutive  laisses  of  different  assonances. 

The  CJiansons  de  Geste  were  sung  to  a  very  simple  melody 
by  the  jongleurs,  and  accompanied  by  the  vielle,  a  kind  of  violin. 

The  character  of  the  earliest  and  purest  of  them,  founded 
on  a  historical  basis,  is  warlike  and  religious;  gradually  history 
is  exaggerated,  and  a  passion  for  the  marvellous  and  fabulous 
invades  everything.  Love  and  gallantry,  absent  at  first,  gain 
ground  apace  under  the  influence  of  the  Breton  Epic.  The 
style  is  occasionally  'grand  in  its  simplicity,  but  more  often 
monotonous,  while  the  study  of  character  is  rude  and  elemen- 
tary, and  feeling  for  nature  is  conspicuous  by  its  absence. 

Leaving  out  of  consideration  the  later  refashionings  both 
in  prose  and  verse  of  the  14th  and  15th  centuries,  it  has  been 
calculated  that  over  a  hundred  Chansons  de  Geste  have  come 
down  to  us.  The  three  oldest  have  already  been  mentioned. 
These  were  followed  in  the  12th  century  by  about  forty -five 
others,  of  which  the  best  are  perhaps:  Aliscans,  Amis  et  A miles, 
Le  Charroi  de  Nimes,  Le  Covenant  Vivien,  Garin  le  Loherain,  the 
oldest  form  of  Huon  de  Bordeaux,  and  Raoul  de  Cambrai.  By 
far  the  larger  number  of  the  rest  are  not  later  than  the  13th 


12  MIDDLE  AGES 

century.  They  include :  Aimeri  de  Narbonne,  Eerie  aux  Grands 
Pies  in  its  present  French  form,  Doon  de  Mayence,  Garin  de 
Monglane,  and  Les  Enfances  (early  exploits)  Ogier. 

The  CJtanson  de  Roland,  as  giving  the  best  idea  of  the  French 
epic  in  its  unadulterated  form,  deserves  special  mention. 

In  the  form  in  which  we  possess  it — not  the  original  one, 
as  we  have  already  noticed — the  Chanson  de  Roland  was  com- 
posed during  the  last  quarter  of  the  llth  century  (between 
1066  and  1095).  As  in  the  case  of  the  bulk  of  these  epic 
poems,  its  authorship  is  unknown.  Some  have  wished  to 
argue  from  the  last  line  which  concludes,  or  rather  supple- 
ments, Roland: 

"  Ci  fait  la  geste  que  Turoldus  dedinet ", 

that  this  Turoldus  or  Turold  was  the  author;  but  as  the 
meaning  of  the  word  dedinet  is  doubtful,  and  as  we  cannot 
tell  \vith  any  degree  of  certainty  whether  he  was  the  poet, 
transcriber,  or  jongleur,  this  conclusion  is  more  than  rash. 

The  Chanson  de  Roland  consists  of  4002  assonanced  deca- 
syllabic lines,  divided  into  291  laisses  of  an  average  length  of 
15  lines.  It  is  founded  on  a  historical  event  recorded  by 
Eginhart  in  his  Libri  Historiarium  IV,  the  surprise  and  defeat 
of  Charlemagne's  rear-guard  returning  from  Spain,  by  the 
Basques  in  the  valley  of  Roncevaux  (Aug.  15,  778).  He  tells 
us  that  among  those  who  fell  was  Hrodland  (Roland),  Count 
of  the  march  of  Brittany.  In  time  the  singers  substituted 
the  Saracens,  the  traditional  foe,  for  the  Basques,  and  from  a 
simple  historical  event  evolved  the  whole  epic  poem,  of  which 
we  append  a  short  analysis. 

Charlemagne,  after  seven  years  spent  in  Spain,  has  conquered  the 
whole  peninsula  with  the  exception  of  Saragossa,  which  is  still  held  by 
the  Saracen  chief  Marsile,  who  sends  word  to  Charlemagne  that  he  is 
willing  to  submit  and  receive  baptism.  The  emperor  accepts  his  offer, 
and  resolves  to  send  an  ambassador  to  Marsile.  Roland,  the  emperor's 
nephew,  proposes  Ganelon,  his  father-in-law.  Ganelon,  thinking  that 
Roland  is  plotting  his  death,  swears  to  take  vengeance.  He  arrives  at 
Saragossa,  and  informs  Marsile  that  the  French  will  soon  start  on  their 
homeward  journey,  and  that  Roland  will  be  in  command  of  the  rear- 


EPIC  POETRY  13 

guard.  Marsile  draws  up  his  plans  accordingly,  and  the  traitor  takes 
leave  of  him.  The  retreat  of  the  Franks  begins,  and  suddenly  when  the 
rear-guard  has  reached  the  pass  of  Roncevaux  it  is  attacked  by  innumer- 
able hosts  of  Saracens.  Olivier,  Roland's  friend,  beseeches  him  to  sound 
his  horn  in  order  to  recall  the  emperor,  who  has  already  reached  Gascony, 
but  Roland  refuses.  The  Franks,  although  greatly  outnumbered,  offer 
an  heroic  resistance,  and  after  accomplishing  prodigies  of  valour,  all 
perish,  save  a  small  band  of  sixty  warriors,  who  make  a  last  stand  round 
Roland,  who  at  last  decides  to  blow  his  horn  (his  olifant).  Charlemagne 
hears  the  trumpet-blast  and  returns,  but  too  late.  The  last  of  the  Franks, 
Olivier  and  Archbishop  Turpin,  fall  in  their  turn,  but  the  Saracens, 
informed  of  the  emperor's  approach,  take  to  flight.  Roland  remains 
alone,  unwounded  but  dying,  exhausted  by  the  strife  and  his  superhuman 
efforts  in  blowing  his  horn.  The  emperor,  who  arrives  in  hot  haste, 
bewails  the  fallen  warriors  and  takes  vengeance  on  Marsile,  after  which 
he  returns  to  his  capital,  Aix,  and  brings  the  news  to  Aude,  Roland's 
betrothed,  who  falls  down  dead  on  hearing  the  terrible  tidings.  The 
traitor  Ganelon  is  tried,  convicted,  and  quartered. 

Taken  as  a  whole,  the  Chanson  de  Roland  is  superior  to  any 
of  the  other  chansons,  though  separate  passages  of  great  beauty 
occur  in  several  of  the  earlier  ones.  Such  scenes  as  Olivier's 
advice  to  Roland  to  blow  his  wonderful  olifant,  and  the  latter's 
proud  refusal;  Archbishop  Turpin's  address  to  the  Frankish 
warriors  before  the  fray,  or  the  description  of  Roland's  last 
moments,  are  worthy  to  take  rank  with  the  finest  passages  in 
the  Iliad. 

(2)  The  Epic  of  Antiquity. — In  the  12th  century  the  clerks 
thought  they  would  rival  the  National  Epic  by  adapting  to  the 
tastes  of  the  public  the  strange  and  wonderful  stories  which 
they  encountered  in  their  Latin  readings.  To  them  the  works 
of  the  Greco-Roman  decadence  were  naturally  more  congenial 
than  those  of  the  classical  period,  as  affording  more  suitable 
materials.  They  first  hit  upon  the  fabulous  history  of  Alex- 
ander the  Great,  as  contained  in  Julius  Valerius,  the  Latin 
abbreviator  of  a  Greek  novel.  The  earliest  of  these  romances 
of  antiquity  is  the  fragment  of  a  poem  on  Alexander  by  one 
Alberic  de  Brian^on.  This  fragment,  which  was  composed 
quite  at  the  beginning  of  the  12th  century,  together  with 
Valerius'  version,  gave  rise  in  the  second  half  of  the  12th  cen- 


14  MIDDLE   AGES 

tury  to  the  Roman  d'Altxandre,  due  to  three  authors,  Alexandra 
de  Bernai,  Lambert  le  Tort,  and  Pierre  of  St.  Cloud,  written 
in  verses  of  twelve  syllables,  since  called  alexandrine,  although 
they  had  already  been  used  in  the  Pelerinage  de  Charlemagne  & 
Jerusalem,  a  Chanson  de  Geste  of  the  end  of  the  llth  century. 
In  these  poems  Alexander  personifies  the  Ideal  knight  of  the 
time,  and  his  largesses,  for  which  he  became  the  model,  are 
especially  exalted,  and  in  order  to  make  the  narrative  more 
attractive,  monstrous  wild  beasts,  mermaids,  amazons,  rain  of 
fire,  and  magic  fountains  are  introduced  with  a  liberal  hand. 

All  the  other  productions  of  the  Epic  of  Antiquity,  with  one 
exception,  were  written  in  the  octosyllabic  line.  Of  these  the 
Roman  de  Troie,  dedicated  to  Alienor  of  Aquitaine,  and  com- 
prising no  less  than  30,000  lines,  is  the  work  of  Benoit  de 
Sainte-More,  the  best  poet  in  this  group.  His  source  is  not 
the  Iliad,  but  translations  of  two  lost  Greek  novels,  while 
several  episodes  are  invented,  of  which  the  most  notable  is 
that  of  Troilus  and  Briseida,  which,  after  passing  through 
Latin  and  Italian,  gave  rise  to  Shakespeare's  play  of  Troilus 
and  Cressida. 

The  Roman  d"Ene"as,1  a  kind  of  courtly  and  chivalric  travesty 
of  the  jfineid,  is  probably  by  the  same  author,  as  is  also  the 
Roman  de  Thebes,  based  on  a  glossed  text  of  Statius,  to  which 
the  author  made  considerable  additions. 

Benoit,  by  his  conventional  and  metaphysical  conception  of 
love,  may  be  called  the  forerunner  of  the  poets  of  the  Breton 
Epic,  whose  casuistic  love  code  was  also  considerably  furthered 
by  several  renderings  of  Ovid's  Ars  Amoris. 

Much  in  the  same  spirit  as  those  already  mentioned  is  the 
Roman  de  Jules  Cesar  (in  Alexandrine  verse)  by  Jacot  de 
Forest,  copied  from  the  prose  Cesar  (1240  c.)  of  Jean  de  Tuin, 
who  himself  had  drawn  almost  exclusively  from  Lucan's 
Pharsalia. 

(3)  The  Breton  Epic. — The  Breton  Epic  is  the  product  of 
the  contact  of  French  society  with  the  Kelts.  This  contact 

\Through  the  medium  of  Heinrich  von  Veldeke's  translation  the  Roman 
d'Entas  introduced  courtesy  into  German  literature. 


EPIC   POETRY  15 

took  place  mainly  in  England  at  the  time  of  the  Norman  Con- 
quest, and  to  a  lesser  degree  between  Normans  and  Bretons 
on  the  continent  of  France,  by  means  of  Keltic  harpers,  who 
wandered  about  England  and  France  singing  their  lais  or  songs 
on  Keltic  traditions,  the  historical  basis  of  which  rests  on  the 
wars  against  the  Saxons  (5th-6th  centuries),  but  which  had 
absorbed  anterior  mythological  elements.  The  popularity  of 
these  lais  was  greatly  increased  by  Geoffrey  of  Monmouth's 
Historia  Regum  Britanniae  (1137  c.),  which  purported  to  be  a 
history  of  the  Britons,  but  which  in  reality  is  a  compound  of 
Nennius,1  Keltic  popular  tales,  and  his  own  imagination. 
Geoffrey's  book  acted  as  a  stimulant;  at  the  same  time  it  is 
wrong  to  regard  it  as  the  source  of  the  Breton  Epic,  although 
it  may  have  been  used  to  some  extent  by  later  writers  in  the 
"matter  of  Britain". 

The  Anglo-Norman  and  French  poets,  prompt  at  seeing 
which  way  the  wind  blew,  and  always  on  the  alert  for  new 
material,  lost  no  time  in  competing  with  the  Keltic  bards. 
Some  wrote  lais,  others  extended  or  amalgamated  them  into 
longer  poems,  while  yet  others  mixed  in  them  traditions  and 
inventions  the  origin  of  which  was  not  Keltic  at  all. 

The  huge  mass  of  the  Breton  Epic  falls  naturally  into  three 
large  divisions,  each  of  quite  a  different  nature: 

(I)  The   first  division   includes  the  Lais  and   the   poems 
referring  to  Tristan. 

(II)  The  second  those  that  deal  with  Arthur  and  the 
Knights  of  the  Round  Table. 

(III)  The  third,  of  later  date,  comprises  the  poems  on  the 
Holy  Graal,  and  its  mystic  band  of  guardians  and  questers. 

(a)  The  spirit  of  the  poems  of  Group  I  is  essentially  Keltic : 
adventures,  exploits,  chivalry,  tourneys,  and  religion  find  little 
place  in  them ;  they  are  mainly  stories  of  tender  or  deep  passion, 
enshrouded  in  a  veil  of  mystic  melancholy. 

Most  of  the  lais  we  possess  are  due  to  a  poetess,  Marie2,  of 

1  Towards  the  end  of  the  10th  century  an  anonymous  writer,  who  became 
known  later  under  the  name  of  Nennius,  wrote  a  short  History  of  the 
Britons,  in  which  Arthur  is  mentioned  for  the  first  time. 

2  Known  as  Marie  de  France. 


16  MIDDLE  AGES 

French  birth,  who  lived  at  the  court  of  Henry  II  of  England. 
She  translated,  or  adapted  from  Keltic  or  Anglo-Saxon,  a 
dozen  or  more  of  these  short  stories  in  verse,  of  which  the  best 
are  that  of  Lanval,  a  knight  beloved  of  a  fairy  who  in  the  end 
leads  him  away  with  her;  of  Eliduc,  the  twofold  love  of  a 
knight  and  the  resignation  of  his  lawful  wife;  of  Bisdavret,  the 
story  of  a  werwolf,  and  of  Chewefeuille,  an  episode  of  the  love 
of  Tristan  and  Isolt. 

The  story  of  Tristan  is  closely  connected  with  lost  lais  of 
mythological  origin  quite  foreign  to  the  Arthurian  cycle  with 
which  it  was  afterwards  connected.  The  scattered  traditions 
relating  to  the  adventures  of  Tristan  were  united  into  a  single 
poem  in  England  by  Beroul  (1150c.),  whose  work  has  only 
come  down  to  us  as  a  fragment.  About  1170  Thomas,  another 
Anglo-Norman  poet,  also  composed  a  poem  on  Tristan,  which 
we  likewise  only  possess  in  fragmentary  form. 

(b)  In  the  poems  of  Group  II  the  Keltic  spirit  is  entirely 
absent.  This  change  is  manifest  in  the  works  of  Chretien  de 
Troie,  the  most  famous  of  the  poets  who  have  treated  the 
matiere  de  Brdagne.  A  new  ideal  of  chivalry  had  sprung  up 
among  the  feudal  aristocracy.  Chretien  determined  to  follow 
the  fashion,  and  in  this  he  was  aided  by  his  lucid  positivism, 
which  is  the  very  counterpart  of  the  mystical  melancholy 
Keltic  mind,  and  also  by  his  position  as  poet  of  the  court  of 
Champagne,  whose  countess  Marie,  and  her  mother  Alienor  of 
Aquitaine,  had  introduced  into  the  north  of  France  the  refined 
manners  of  the  south  and  the  love-poetry  of  the  troubadours, 
which  at  the  time  were  looked  upon  as  the  ideal  of  chivalry. 

Chretien's  poems,  which  all  belong  to  the  Breton  Epic, 
include  his  lost  Tristan,  composed  about  1160;  followed  by 
Erec,  then  by  Cliges;  a  few  years  later  (1170  c.)  by  Lancelot 
and  by  Ivain  or  Le  Chevalier  au  Lion,  and  lastly  (1175  c.)  by 
Perceval,  or  Le  Conte  du  Graal,  which  he  left  unfinished. 

Adventures,  tourneys,  marvellous  exploits,  which  were 
merely  ornaments  in  the  lais  or  the  poems  on  Tristan  when 
they  did  occur,  tend  to  become  the  end :  Arthur  has  nothing 
in  common  with  the  mysterious  Keltic  chief  whom  the  fairies 


EPIC   POETRY  17 

have  carried  off  to  the  Isle  of  Avallon,  but  becomes  the  embodi- 
ment of  what  a  perfect  knight  should  be;  a  brilliant  king 
whose  court  is  the  centre  of  ideal  politeness,  gracious  manners, 
sumptuous  festivals,  and  refined  love — not  the  passion  of  the 
poems  on  Tristan  or  even  of  the  lais  of  Marie  de  France,  but 
the  metaphysical  courtesy  of  the  southern  troubadours. 

Form  is  Chretien's  chief  merit,  and  his  poetry  offers  the 
best  example  of  12th-century  French. 

(c)  Group  III. — The  ideal  of  a  worldly  and  too  facile  life, 
as  represented  in  the  romances  of  the  court-poet  of  Cham- 
pagne, seems  to  have  shocked  a  few  serious  and  austere 
Christian  minds.  In  these  Keltic  traditions  themselves  they 
found  a  means  of  protesting  against  the  frivolity  of  the 
Romans  de  la  Table  Ronde. 

Chretien,  in  his  fragment  of  Perceval,  makes  mention  of  a 
certain  dish  or  graal.  With  his  continuators  this  graal  became 
the  vessel  in  which  Joseph  of  Arimatheia  gathered  the  Lord's 
blood,  and  towards  the  beginning  of  the  13th  century  a  poet 
of  Franche-Comte,  Eobert  de  Boron,  tried  to  connect  the 
history  of  this  holy  graal  with  the  Breton  Epic,  in  a  trilogy 
of  poems:  Joseph  d'Arimathie,  Merlin,  which  introduced  the 
famous  enchanter  into  the  cycle,  and  Perceval,  lost,  but  early 
turned  into  prose. 

In  Boron's  productions  the  religious  side  of  the  Holy  Graal 
episode  is  developed  and  love  plays  no  part. 

Still  more  austere  and  rigidly  ascetic  is  a  Quete  du  Saint 
Graal,  composed  in  the  13th  century;  Galaad,  a  figure  of 
immaculate  perfection,  replaces  Perceval,  and  woman  is  cursed 
and  shunned  as  the  embodiment  of  sin. 

But  those  Romances  of  the  Graal  were  too  much  in  contra- 
diction with  the  tastes  and  aspirations  of  feudal  aristocracy  to 
represent  anything  but  the  pangs  of  a  few  tormented  minds. 
For  the  lords  and  ladies  of  the  13th  and  14th  centuries  the 
ideal  knight  was  Ivain  or  Lancelot,  and  not  Perceval  or  Galaad. 

The  poems  of  the  Breton  Epic  are  written  in  the  octo- 
syllabic line  with  full  rime,  arid,  unlike  the  Chansons  de  Geste, 
were  meant  to  be  read  and  not  sung. 

(MOW)  B 


18  MIDDLE   AGES 

Gradually  from  the  beginning  of  the  13th  century  the 
prose  romances  seem  to  have  superseded  the  poetical  and 
helped  to  spread  the  fame  of  the  Breton  Epic,  which  in  the 
Middle  Ages  was  immense,  as  the  numerous  Italian,  German, 
English,  Spanish,  and  Portuguese  translations,  continuations, 
and  imitations  testify. 

Returning  to  France  from  Spain  in  the  16th  century  in  the 
guise  of  the  Amadis  des  Gaules,  they  became  the  main  source 
of  inspiration  for  the  chivalric  and  pastoral  novels  of  the 
17th  century. 


CHAPTER  II 

LYRICAL    POETRY 

(a)  First  Period. — There  is  little  doubt  that  lyrical  poetry 
of  a  popular  kind  existed  in  the  north  of  France  already  in 
the  10th  century.  It  consisted  of  dance-songs,  of  which  only  a 
few  refrains,  incorporated  in  songs  of  a  later  epoch,  have  been 
preserved.  These  popular  dance-songs  were  called  Chansons 
d'Histoire  on  account  of  their  semi-narrative  character,  or 
Chansons  de  Toile,  no  doubt  because  they  were  sung  by  women 
when  weaving.  They  are  written  in  verses  of  ten  or  eight 
syllables  with  assonance,  and  consist  of  four  or  five  strophes 
with  a  refrain.  The  characters  are  limited  to  two  or  three 
persons,  the  dramatic  and  epic  element  predominating.  None 
of  these  poems  occurs  later  than  the  close  of  the  12th  century. 

(6)  Second  Period. — About  1150,  Provencal  influence  came 
and  interrupted  this  current  of  popular  and  spontaneous 
poetry.  Communication  between  the  north  and  the  south 
had  already  taken  place  in  the  Holy  Land  at  the  time  of  the 
Crusades,  but  the  direct  medium  was  Alienor  of  Aquitaine, 
and  her  daughter  Marie  who  had  married  the  Count  of 
Champagne.  Her  court,  together  with  Paris  the  capital, 
became  the  centre  of  courtly  poetry,  which  was  in  full  vogue 
during  the  last  years  of  the  llth  and  the  beginning  of  the 
12th  century.  The  earliest  singers  were  persons  of  noble 


LYRICAL   POETRY  19 

rank  and  birth,  but  gradually  poetry  was  abandoned  by  the 
nobility,  and  fell  into  the  hands  of  the  bourgeoisie, 

The  lyric  poetry  of  the  troubadours  of  the  south  was  moral, 
satirical,  and  political,  although  its  main  theme  was  love. 
That  of  their  northern  imitators  is  almost  exclusively  amor- 
ous. It  is  essentially  a  poetry  of  the  intellect  and  of  the 
imagination,  embodying  the  ideal  of  the  brilliant  society  of 
the  south  which  had  been  imported  into  the  north.  In  this 
society  great  importance  was  attached  to  certain  rules  of 
social  etiquette  which  were  designated  under  the  name  of 
courtoisie,  and  in  which  an  elaborate  code  of  love  represented 
that  passion  as  ennobling,  and  woman  as  the  object  most 
worthy  of  worship. 

The  spontaneous  cry  of  passion  is  rarely  heard  in  these 
songs,  which  reflect  the  thoughts  of  the  poet  about  love  and 
not  his  own  personal  feelings.  Their  real  merit  lies  in  their 
grace,  elegance,  and  prettiness,  as  well  as  in  their  artistic 
qualities. 

They  are  generally  made  up  of  five,  six,  or  seven  strophes, 
invariably  divided  into  three  parts  (2  +  2  +  1;  2  +  2  +  2; 
2  +  2  +  3),  with  varying  and  complicated  systems  of  rime.  In 
most  cases  the  poet  was  also  a  musician  and  composed  his  own 
melody;  the  form  of  each  strophe  was  invented  anew  for  each 
song,  and  was  considered  as  the  property  of  the  inventor;  he 
was  not  supposed  to  repeat  it  himself,  and  no  other  poet  could 
use  this  son  (melody)  without  acknowledgment,  unless  it  was 
for  polemical  purposes. 

Different  names  were  applied  to  these  songs  according  to 
their  form  and  nature  (pastourelle,  estampie,  tendon,  jeu parti,  &c.). 

Chretien  de  Troie,  who  introduced  courtoisie  into  the  Breton 
Epic,  was  one  of  the  first  to  write  songs  in  the  form  of  the 
troubadours,  but  the  chief  representatives  of  this  artificial  lyric 
in  the  langue  d'oil  are:  Conon  or  ftuesne  de  Bethune  ( +  1224), 
who  sang  at  the  court  of  Marie;  Gace  Brule,  a  knight  of 
Champagne ;  Gui,  the  governor  of  the  castle  of  Coucy  ( +  1 203), 
and  Thibaut  de  Champagne,  king  of  Navarre  (  +  1253),  the 
best  and  most  original  of  them  all. 


20  MIDDLE  AGES 

In  the  hands  of  the  commoners  who  practised  this  branch, 
particularly  in  the  puys,1  or  poetical  competitions  of  the  north 
of  France,  courtly  lyric  became  more  personal  and  satirical. 
Of  these  the  most  famous  are  Adam  de  la  Halle,  Jean  Bodel, 
and  Baude  Fastoul,  all  three  belonging  to  Arras. 

(c)  The  Third  Period  of  French  lyrical  poetry  in  the  Middle 
Ages  begins  with  the  14th  century. 

During  this  period  varieties  of  lyrical  poetry  having  a  more 
or  less  fixed  form  were  developed,  reduced  to  rule,  and  almost 
exclusively  used.  The  ballad  especially,  the  rondeau,  the 
virelai,  and  the  chant  royal  were  the  established  forms. 

The  initiator  of  this  new  school  was  one  Guillaume  de 
Machaut,  and  his  principal  followers  were  Eustache  Des- 
champs,  Froissart  the  famous  chronicler,  Christine  de  Pisan, 
and  Alain  Chartier.  Their  poetry  was  a  continuation  of  the 
artificial  lyricism  of  the  south,  in  which  art  and  grace  were 
replaced  by  pedantic  subtlety  and  scholastic  dialectics.  As 
they  had  little  to  say  they  determined  to  replace  poetic 
inspiration  by  elaborating  the  technique  of  verse.  A  poet 
was  truly  great  if  he  could  write  poetry  with  annexed2 
rimes,  still  greater  if  he  could  rise  to  the  equivocal  and  retro- 
grade3 rime  or  other  such  juggleries,  although  occasionally 
Machaut's  followers  essay  to  make  passing  events  the  subject 
of  poetry,  and  in  this  way  give  us  some  idea  of  the  men  and 
manners  of  their  age. 

Their  style  was  as  complicated  as  their  technique,  and 
allegory,  which  had  become  almost  obligatory  since  the 
Romance  of  the  Rose,  holds  sway.  Hence  such  strange  titles 
as  L'Horloge  Amoureuse,  Traite  de  VEpinette  Amoureuse,  L'Arbre 
des  Batailles,  &c. 

Guillaume  de  Machaut  (1290-95 — 1377)  wrote  no  less  than 

lrThe  word  puys  means  properly  peak,  height.  Thus  was  called  the 
platform  on  which  the  judges  sat,  and  from  which  the  competing  poets 
recited  their  verses. 

2  A  rime  was  known  as  annexed  when  the  last  syllable  of  one  verse 
becomes  the  first  of  the  verse  following. 

3  A  rime  equivoque  et  retrograde  was  one  in  which  the  last  syllable  of  one 
verse  becomes  the  first  word  of  the  verse  following. 


LYRICAL   POETRY  21 

80,000  verses.  Occasionally  in  an  odd  ballad  or  rondeau  the 
form  is  good,  but  in  the  whole  of  his  production  it  can  safely 
be  said  that  there  is  not  a  grain  of  real  poetry. 

Jean  de  Froissart  (1337-1404  c.)  is  the  author  of  about 
25,000  lines  of  lyric  and  didactic  poetry  very  little  superior 
to  that  of  his  master. 

Eustache  Deschamps  (1340  C.-1410  c.)  is  a  pupil  of  Machaut's 
in  form,  but  not  in  spirit.  He  it  was  especially  who  tried  to 
find  subjects  for  poetry  in  the  events  of  his  life  and  times,  his 
best-known  poem  being  the  ballad  on  Du  Guesclin, 

"  Estoc  d'honneur  et  arbre  de  vaillance  ". 

Deschamps'  works  are  very  voluminous,  and  comprise  no 
less  than  1450  ballads,  rondeaux,  and  other  light  pieces, 
besides  a  long  satirical  poem  on  women  called  the  Miroir  de 
Mariage  in  13,000  lines,  and  an  Art  de  Dictier  et  de  Faire 
Ballades  et  Chants  Royaux  (1392) — the  earliest  poetics  in  French. 

Deschamps  was  a  grumbler  and  a  pessimist,  but  he  had 
a  real  love  for  his  country  and  for  the  poor. 

Christine  de  Fisan  (1363-1431)  was  of  Italian  parentage 
and  birth,  but  came  to  France  when  quite  a  child.  Left  a 
widow  at  an  early  age,  she  was  obliged  to  turn  to  literature 
to  keep  herself  and  her  children.  Her  best  verse  productions 
are  in  the  forms  established  by  Machaut  and  his  school,  but 
often  pedantic  and  marred  by  hurried  composition. 

Alain  Chartier  (1392c.-1440c.)  was  considered  in  his  day 
as  the  greatest  writer  of  his  time.  As  a  poet  he  is  prosaic  in 
the  extreme.  As  a  prose  writer,  though  he  did  not  often 
succeed  in  freeing  himself  from  allegory  and  abstractions,  he 
deserves  to  be  remembered  for  his  patriotism  and  for  his 
harmonious  eloquence,  acquired  by  a  diligent  study  of  the 
ancients,  especially  Seneca.  A  few  pages  in  Alain  Chartier 
are  the  best  prose  before  the  16th  century.  They  will  be 
found  in  the  Quadrilogue  Invectif,  in  which  France  beseeches 
the  representatives  of  the  Three  Estates  to  have  pity  on  her 
wretched  state. 


22  MIDDLE   AGES 

CHAPTER  III 

DRAMA 

(1)  Tragic  Drama. — The  tragic  drama  of  the  Middle  Ages 
is  a  continuation  and  expansion  of  the  liturgical  drama,  which 
itself  had  developed  from  the  service,  to  which  interpolations 
were  gradually  added  for  the  greater  edification  of  the  faithful. 
Christmas  and  Easter  especially  were  the  seasons  when  those 
representations  were  given.  The  language  was  at  first  exclu. 
sively  Latin  and  in  prose,  gradually  verses  were  introduced, 
and  French  used  side  by  side  with  Latin.  The  earliest  play 
in  which  the  vernacular  (of  Poitou)  competes  with  Latin  is 
Sponsus  (1150c.),  a  paraphrase  of  the  parable  of  the  Foolish 
Virgins.  Finally,  French  ousted  Latin,  and  as  the  audience 
and  actors  became  more  numerous  the  play  passed  from  the 
church  into  the  public  street  or  square.  The  actors,  who  at 
first  were  priests  supported  by  laymen,  became  later  almost 
exclusively  laymen. 

Secular  drama  played  outside  the  church  by  profane  actors 
is  fully  established  in  the  12th  century.  The  oldest  play  of 
this  kind  in  French  (but  with  interspersed  liturgical  sentences 
in  Latin)  is  the  Jeu  d'Adam,  written  in  England  by  an  unknown 
author  in  the  12th  century.  The  verse  is  octosyllabic,  and 
the  play  is  made  up  of  three  juxtaposed  parts:  the  fall  of 
Adam  and  Eve,  the  death  of  Abel,  and  a  procession  of  Messi- 
anic prophets  who  announce  the  coming  of  the  Redeemer. 
The  style  is  simple  but  vigorous,  and  the  coaxing  of  Eve  by 
the  devil  shows  considerable  psychological  insight. 

Of  the  13th  century  only  two  religious  plays  remain.  The 
first,  the  Jeu  de  S.  Nicolas,  was  composed  by  Jean  Bodel  of 
Arras,  and  played  there,  no  doubt  by  a  puy  on  the  occasion 
of  that  saint's  day.  It  consists  of  a  mixture  of  tragic  and 
comic  scenes — a  handful  of  Christians  in  combat  against  the 
Saracens,  and  tavern  scenes  teeming  with  life  and  realism. 

The  second  is  a  so-called  miracle  play,  or  the  recital  of  some 
miraculous  event  attributed  to  the  Virgin  or  the  saints.  It 


DRAMA  23 

was  written  by  the  trouvere  Rutebeuf,  and  styled  Miracle  de 
Thfophile,  an  ambitious  priest  who  sells  his  soul  to  the  devil, 
but  is  saved  in  the  end  by  the  intervention  of  the  Virgin 
Mary. 

Of  the  14th  century  forty -three  Miracles  de  Notre  Dame  have 
been  preserved.  They  formed  the  repertoire  of  some  literary 
guild.  Their  literary  value  is  not  great,  and  they  are  only 
interesting  for  their  strange  blending  of  mysticism  and  realism. 
The  authors  of  these  Miracles  drew  on  very  varied  sources: 
the  apocryphal  gospels,  legends  of  saints,  chansons  de  geste,  and 
romances. 

One  of  these,  L'Histoire  de  Griselidis,  a  dramatized  fableau,  is 
entirely  profane,  and  much  more  like  a  morality  than  a  miracle. 

In  the  15th  century  a  neAv  kind  of  religious  play  appears, 
the  mystery,1  a  distant  offspring  of  the  liturgical  drama,  which 
marks  the  culminating  point  of  the  Medieval  Drama.  A 
mystery  can  be  defined  as  the  exposition  in  dialogue  of  an 
historical  event  drawn  from  the  Scriptures  or  the  life  of  the 
saints.  They  were  object-lessons  intended  to  teach  the  masses 
the  essential  truths  of  religion. 

According  to  subject,  they  can  be  divided  into  three  large 
cycles : 

(a)  The  Cycle  of  the  Old  Testament. 

(b)  The  Cycle  of  the  New  Testament. 

(c)  The  Cycle  of  the  Saints. 

The  first  group  is  a  kind  of  biblical  encyclopedia,  which, 
under  the  name  of  Mystere  du  Fieux  Testament,  includes  a 
fusion  of  mysteries  originally  distinct.  In  the  Cycle  of  the 
New  Testament  the  most  famous  production  is  the  Passion  of 
Arnold  Greban,  written  about  1450,  and  embracing  the  entire 
earthly  life  of  our  Lord  in  34,000  lines,  which  required  150 

1  The  word  mystere,  in  this  sense,  is  derived  from  the  Latin  ministerium, 
and  has  no  connection  with  the  Greek  word  mystery.  Originally  the  term 
mystere  was  applied  to  tableaux  vivants.  It  was  first  applied  to  dramatic 
performances  in  the  royal  privilege,  which  conferred  upon  the  association 
known  as  the  Confrerie  de  la  Passion  the  right  of  performing  sacred  plays 
(1402). 


24  MIDDLK   AGES 

performers  and  four  days  for  the  delivery.  But  Greban,  in 
alliance  with  his  brother  Simon  this  time,  was  not  to  be 
beaten,  and  composed  the  Actes  des  Apotres,  comprising  61,908 
verses,  and  for  which  498  actors  were  requisitioned.  It  was 
played  with  great  success  at  Bourges  in  1536,  the  perfor- 
mance extending  over  forty  days. 

Two  mysteries,  the  subjects  of  which  are  taken  from  pro- 
fane history,  form  an  exception:  the  Sttge  d'Orltons  and  the 
Destruction  de  Troie,  the  last  of  which  was  probably  never 
played. 

In  the  Middle  Ages  the  performance  of  a  mystery  set  a 
whole  city  in  motion.  The  costs  were  defrayed  by  the  clergy, 
the  town,  or  sometimes  by  a  guild.  The  actors,  who  were 
amateurs,  were  recruited  from  all  classes  of  society — advocates, 
priests,  artisans,  burgesses,  &c. — by  means  of  the  cry  or 
proclamation,  which  announced  the  enterprise,  and  invited 
volunteers  to  offer  their  services.  On  the  day  preceding  the 
first  day  of  performance  the  personages  in  their  different 
costumes  paraded  the  streets  (la  montre).  We  have  already 
mentioned  the  large  number  of  actors  and  the  extraordinary 
length  of  time  that  some  of  these  plays  required.  In  them 
time  and  place  were  treated  with  the  utmost  freedom.  The 
vast  stage  represented  simultaneously  all  the  places  in  which 
the  action  was  supposed  to  take  place — paradise,  Nazareth, 
Jerusalem,  the  sea,  hell,  as  the  case  might  be — and  none  of 
the  actors  quitted  the  stage.  Nothing  that  could  appeal  to 
the  eyes  or  senses  was  neglected;  devils  shot  in  and  out  of 
trap-doors,  manikins  were  burnt  or  wracked,  flames  darted 
from  the  jaws  of  a  dragon  figuring  the  mouth  of  hell,  while, 
when  the  case  required  it,  an  infernal  din  was  kept  up  by  the 
"master  of  the  secrets"  and  his  myrmidons  in  the  invisible 
depths  below  the  stage. 

The  oldest  theatrical  company  giving  regular  performances 
was  the  celebrated  Confrdrie  de  la  Passion,  composed  of  bur- 
gesses and  artisans,  which  already  existed  in  1398.  In  1402 
it  received  state  recognition  and  the  sole  right  to  play  sacred 
plays  in  Paris.  This  guild  first  gave  its  performances  in  the 


DRAMA  25 

large  hall  of  the  Hospital  of  the  Trinity,  but  in  1539  it 
migrated  to  the  Hotel  de  Flandres,  and  thence  to  the  Hotel 
de  Bourgogne.  On  the  model  of  this  association  similar  ones 
were  formed  in  the  provinces. 

The  repertoire  of  the  Confrfrie  de  la  Passion  was  at  first 
composed  exclusively  of  mysteries,  but  farces  were  ultimately 
introduced,  and  the  Christian  drama  stifled  under  the  growing 
abundance  of  popular  and  burlesque  scenes,  which  had  been 
introduced  partly  because  the  solemnity  of  the  matter  de- 
manded relief,  but  still  more  because  the  actors  found  it 
pleased  the  audience  better.  The  Parliament  of  Paris  took 
fright;  the  Protestants  were  scandalized,  as  were  also  the 
lovers  of  classical  art.  In  consequence  that  assembly  decreed 
on  the  17th  of  November,  1548,  that  the  Confrerie  de  la  Passion 
should  be  forbidden  in  future  to  play  sacred  dramas,  though 
they  were  allowed  to  perform  mysteries  on  profane  subjects. 
About  1588  the  confreres  ceased  to  play,  and  yielded  their  hall 
to  other  actors;  the  opposition  to  classical  tragedy  became 
weaker  and  weaker,  and  at  the  end  of  the  century  the  medi- 
eval tragic  drama  was  as  good  as  dead., 

(2)  Comedy  in  the  Middle  Ages. — The  origins  of  the  Comic 
Drama  are  uncertain.  The  two  oldest  French  comedies,  Le  Jeu 
de  la  FeuilUe  (1260  c.)  and  Le  Jeu  de  Robin  et  de  Marion  (1283  c.), 
have  nothing  in  common  with  later  productions,  a  fact  which 
has  led  some  authorities  to  suppose  that  they  are  the  remnants 
of  an  early  comic  drama  whose  history  has  remained  unknown 
to  us.  Both  these  plays  were  written  by  Adam  de  la  Halle 
of  Arras. 

The  Jeu  de  la  FeuilUe,  so  called  because  it  was  played  under 
a  bower,  probably  by  some  puy,  is  a  kind  of  review  of  the  year 
in  1096  verses.  Adam  himself,  his  father  and  his  wife  appear, 
while  his  neighbours,  friends,  and  enemies  are  also  presented  to 
us  in  a  series  of  pictures,  in  which  obscene  realism  and  grace- 
ful fancy  alternate. 

The  Jeu  de  RoUn  et  de  Marion  is  a  kind  of  comic  opera,  a 
pastourelle  in  dialogue.  The  shepherdess  Marion  sings  of  her 
love  for  Robin  while  watching  over  her  sheep ;  a  knight  appears 


26  MIDDLE  AGES 

and  tries  to  win  her  love ;  she  escapes  from  him,  rejoins  her 
companions,  and  after  a  series  of  rural  diversions  all  join  hands 
and  execute  a  dance. 

Of  comedy  in  the  14th  century  only  two  dialogued  pieces 
by  Eustache  Deschamps  occur,  which  were  not  intended  for 
the  stage. 

It  was  at  this  period  that  two  societies  were  organized  which 
were  destined  to  play  much  the  same  part  with  regard  to 
comedy  as  the  Confrdrie  de  la  Passion  did  in  the  serious  drama. 
These  were  the  Clercs  de  la  Basoche  or  Clercs  du  Parlement  and 
the  Enfants  sans  Souci.  The  Basoche  had  formed  a  corporation 
since  1303,  but  it  was  not  till  the  beginning  of  the  15th  cen- 
tury that  they  obtained  the  right  to  play  farces  and  moralities. 

About  the  same  time  some  young  men  of  the  upper  classes, 
who  styled  themselves  Les  En/ants  sans  Souci,  likewise  obtained 
the  privilege  to  perform  farces  and  other  pieces,  which  received 
the  name  of  sotties.  Thus  during  the  15th  century  farces, 
moralities,  and  sotties  were  the  kinds  cultivated. 

The  farce,  of  which  we  have  one  solitary  specimen  belonging 
to  the  13th  century,  was  a  play  the  sole  object  of  which  was 
to  amuse.  It  has  a  great  deal  of  analogy  with  the  fableau, 
in  fact  farces  were  often  only  jableaux  in  action.  About  150 
have  come  down  to  us.  The  best  are  Le  Cuvier,  a  satire  against 
women;  Le  Franc  Archer  de  Bagnolet,  a  hit  at  boastful  swash- 
bucklers; and  above  all,  L'Awcat  Pathelin,  composed  about 
1470  by  an  unknown  author: 

Pathelin  is  a  poor  briefless  barrister;  his  wife  pesters  him  for  some 
cloth  to  make  a  gown ;  he  promises  to  gratify  her  wish,  and  wends  his 
steps  to  the  draper's.  After  having  coaxed  and  beguiled  him  to  let  him 
have  some  cloth  he,  sets  off,  promising  to  pay  the  draper  when  he  calls. 
The  draper  turns  up  duly  and  finds  Pathelin  in  bed  with  a  raging  fever, 
raving  in  every  dialect.  He  must  be  mistaken;  such  a  man  could  not 
have  been  lately  in  his  shop  and  bought  some  cloth.  He  goes  away, 
convinced  that  he  has  been  dreaming  or  been  deceived  by  the  devil.  In 
the  meantime  the  draper  has  dismissed  his  shepherd,  Thibaut  Aignelet, 
because  he  stole  his  wool  and  ate  his  sheep.  The  shepherd  asks  Pathelin 
to  defend  him  before  the  court ;  the  latter,  agrees ;  tells  his  client  to 
affect  idiocy,  and  to  reply  to  all  questions  with  "  bee ".  The  dtratagem 


SATIRICAL   AND    ALLEGORICAL   POETRY  27 

succeeds,  and  Thibaut  gets  off  scot-free.     Pathelin  asks  for  his  fee,  but 
can  obtain  no  other  answer  but  "  bee  ",  thus  falling  into  his  own  trap. 

The  moralite,  as  its  title  implies,  was  meant  to  inculcate 
certain  moral  truths.  Their  character  is  very  varied — mostly 
comic,  sometimes  quite  serious,  but  always  didactic;  while  the 
personages  are  generally  allegorical  figures,  such  as  Bien  Avise", 
liaison,  Malechance,  Oysance,  &c. 

The  sottie  is  much  like  the  farce,  except  that  its  satire  is 
more  aggressive.  It  was  used  with  a  direct  political  purpose 
by  Louis  XII: 

"  Le  roy  Loys  douziesme  desiroit 
Qu'on  les  jouast  &  Paris,  et  disoit 
Que  par  tels  jeux  il  Sfaroit  maintes  faultes 
Qu'on  lui  celoit  par  surprinses  trap  caultes  (cunning)  ". 

Thus  Gringoire,  a  member  of  the  Enfants  sans  Souci,  in  his 
Sottie  du  Prince  des  Sots  (1512)  backs  up  the  king  in  his  quarrel 
against  Pope  Julius  II,  who  appears  accompanied  by  Simonie 
and  Hypocrisie,  and  introduces  himself  with  the  words : 

"  Je  tie  me  puis  de  mal  faire  abstenir, 
Ma  promesse  ne  vueil  (veux)  entretenir; 
Ainsi  qu'un  Grec  suis  menteur  detestable, 
Comme  la  mer  inconstant,  variable  ". 

The  comic  drama  of  the  Middle  Ages  did  not  disappear 
entirely  on  the  advent  of  the  Renaissance;  it  had  created  a 
tradition  which  was  continued  in  the  16th  century  and  which 
has  penetrated  into  modern  comedy. 


CHAPTER  IV 

SATIRICAL  AND  ALLEGORICAL  POETRY 

(1)  Satirical  Literature. — Various  renderings  of  the  ^Esopic 
fables  were  made  from  the  12th  century  onwards,  by  way  of 
the  Latin  fables  of  Phaedrus  and  Avianus,  with  additions  of 
Eastern  origin.  The  most  interesting  of  these  is  the  Isopet 
(a  generic  name  in  the  Middle  Ages  for  any  collection  of  fables 


28  MIDDLE  AGES 

whether  vEsopic  or  not)  of  Marie  de  France,  the  author  of  the 
more  famous  lais.  These  fables,  mingling  with  the  animal 
stories  which  had  existed  in  popular  tradition  from  the  earliest 
times,  called  forth  the  world-renowned  Roman  de  Renard,  one 
of  the  capital  works  of  the  Middle  Ages,  the  different  branches 
of  which,  taking  them  altogether,  cannot  fall  much  short  of 
one  hundred  thousand  lines. 

These  branches  are:  (a)  the  Ptlerinage  de  Renard  and  the 
Juyement  de  Renard,  which  both  belong  to  the  end  of  the  1 2th 
century,  and  of  which  the  authors  are  not  known;  (b)  le 
Couronnement  de  Renard,  written  soon  after  1250,  and  Renard 
le  Nouvel,  the  work  of  a  poet  of  Lille,  Jacquemart  Gele"e, 
nearly  half  a  century  later;  (c)  Renard  le  Contrefait,  composed' 
at  Troyes  before  1328. 

In  the  Animal  Epopee  the  principal  characters,  characters 
which  have  become  individualized,  are:  Keynard  the  Fox, 
whose  name  became  so  famous  that  it  was  applied  to  the  whole 
class,  and  turned  out  the  older  word  goupil.  He  it  is  who  is 
the  chief  actor,  while  around  him  are  grouped  Isengrin  the 
wolf,  Noble  the  lion,  and  their  wives;  Bruin  the  bear,  Bruyant 
the  bull,  Brichemer  the  stag,  Tibert  the  cat,  Couard  the  hare, 
Chantedair  the  cock,  Pinte  the  hen,  and  many  others.  The 
primitive  form  of  the  Roman  de  Renard,  in  which  these  scat- 
tered animal-stories  were  first  grouped  round  one  central 
hero,  and  which  belongs  to  the  early  part  of  the  12th  century, 
is  lost,  but  it  can  in  part  be  reconstructed  from  the  Latin 
Isengrinus  (1150  c.),  and  from  the  German  Reinhart  Fuchs, 
a  rendering  from  the  French  by  an  Alsatian,  Heinrich  von 
Glichezare  (1180c.). 

In  the  primitive  form  and  the  earliest  branches  of  the  Ro- 
mance of  Reynard  wonderful  skill  is  exhibited  in  keeping  the 
characters  mere  beasts,  while  assigning  to  them  human  arts. 
The  spirit  is  one  of  frank  gaiety,  untroubled  by  a  didactic  or 
satirical  intention.  Not  so  in  the  later  branches.  When  it 
was  perceived  how  easily  the  doings  of  the  fox  and  his  com- 
panions lent  themselves  to  social  and  political  satire,  the  beasts 
were  more  and  more  transformed  into  men;  the  whole  became 


SATIRICAL   AND   ALLEGORICAL   POETRT  29 

a  huge  and  often  dull  bourgeois  parody  of  the  church  and  nobil- 
ity, in  which  rascality  and  trickery  (renardie)  triumph  over 
strength.  Things  are  still  worse  in  Renard  le  Contrefait,  which 
closes  the  series.  It  is  nothing  more  than  a  kind  of  encyclo- 
pedia woven  into  the  story,  which  itself  has  received  distinct 
additions.  Far  inferior  in  execution  to  the  other  branches, 
it  owed  its  prodigious  success  to  allegory,  at  a  time  when 
allegory  had  invaded  the  whole  of  literature. 

The  same  bourgeois  spirit  is  apparent  in  the  fahleaux  (the 
form  fabliau  belongs  to  the  Picard  dialect),  short  tales  in  verse — 
almost  invariably  octosyllabic  couplets — dealing,  for  the  most 
part  from  the  comic  point  of  view,  with  incidents  of  ordinary 
life.  About  150  of  these  fableaux  have  come  down  to  us. 
Their  average  length  is  from  200-300  lines.  The  period  of 
their  greatest  popularity  extends  from  the  close  of  the  12th 
to  the  beginning  of  the  13th  century,  though  they  appear  as 
early  as  1159  and  as  late  as  1340. 

It  may  be  that  a  few  of  these  stories  have  come  down  to  us 
from  India,  but  the  great  majority  of  them  only  call  for  an 
inventive  effort  that  does  not  exceed  the  capacity  of  the  most 
ordinary  experience.  Their  chief  aim  is  to  amuse,  but  too 
often  amusement  is  sought  in  ribaldry  and  obscenity.  Many 
are  satirical,  but  in  this  connection  it  should  be  noticed  that 
the  authors  carefully  avoid  attacking  powerful  personages,  and 
confine  their  attention  to  the  peasant,  the  village  priest,  and, 
above  all,  to  women  in  general. 

The  fableaux  are  mostly  by  anonymous  writers.  Of  the 
authors  whose  names  are  recorded  the  best  known  are :  Huon 
le  Hoi,  who  wrote  one  of  the  most  charming  and  least  offen- 
sive of  these  tales,  the  Fair  Palefroi;  Courtebarbe,  the  author 
of  Les  Trois  Aveugles  de  Compiegne;  Jehan  Bedel,  whose  best 
are  Brunain  and  Gombert  et  les  deux  Clercs;  Gautier  le  Long, 
who  composed  the  Valet  qui  d'Aise  a  Malaise  se  met  (by  mar- 
riage), and  La  Feuve;  also  Bernier,  to  whom  we  owe  La 
Housse  Partie,  and  B,utebeu£  the  greatest  poet  not  only  of  the 
13th  century,  but  of  the  whole  of  French  literature  prior  to 
Villon. 


30  MIDDLE   AfiES 

His  best  work  are  the  satires  against  the  religious  orders, 
the  mendicant  friars,  and  indeed  against  all  clerics,  students 
alone  excepted;  but,  besides  fableaux  and  the  Miracle  de  Theo- 
phile,  which  is  noticed  under  dramatic  literature,  he  wrote  the 
Maruige  Rutebeuf  on  his  own  unhappy  conjugal  relations;  the 
Dit  des  Ribands  de  Grhe;  the  Dit  de  I'Herberie,  an  amusing 
parody  of  a  quack;  and  numerous  religious  pieces.  Little  is 
known  of  Rutebeuf,  except  that  he  lived  a  Bohemian  life  at 
Paris,  in  constant  distress  and  misery,  the  result  of  lavish 
habits,  a  passion  for  gambling,  and  an  unhappy  marriage.  His 
poems,  judging  by  the  allusions  which  they  contain,  must 
have  been  written  between  1255  and  1280.  They  are  in  the 
dialect  of.  the  Ile-de-France.  His  most  striking  qualities  are 
force,  spirit,  and  colour,  and  some  of  his  best  productions 
reveal  a  touching  personal  note  that  reminds  one  of  Villon, 
although,  unlike  Villon,  he  is  almost  entirely  lacking  in  pathos. 

Consequent  on  considerable  changes  both  in  society  and 
literature,  the  fableau  disappeared  as  a  branch  of  literature  in 
the  second  half  of  the  14th  century.  In  the  15th  it  is  repre- 
sented by  the  prose  conte  and  by  the  farce.  The  conte  in  verse 
belongs  to  a  much  later  period. 

Other  species  of  satirical  poetry  are  the  so-called  Mats  du 
monde,  in  which  universal  satire  is  expressed.  The  oldest  and 
most  interesting  of  these  is  the  Lime  des  Manures,  by  Etienne 
de  Fougeres  (  +  1178).  Here  likewise  may  be  classed  the 
Bible1  of  Guiot  de  Provins  and  that  of  Hugues  de  Berze, 
satirizing  the  whole  of  contemporary  society. 

Other  poems  mocked  at  certain  classes  of  society  only, 
clerks,  peasants,  usurers,  and  more  especially  women.  Of  the 
last  kind  the  wittiest  is  the  fivangile  des  Femmes,  recast  and 
interpolated  several  times  from  the  beginning  of  the  12th 
century  onwards.  It  is  divided  into  quatrains  of  twelve  syl- 
lables, in  the  last  line  of  which  the  praise  accorded  in  the  first 
three  lines  is  sarcastically  upset. 

Political  satire,  too,  was  full  of  life  in  the  Middle  Ages;  at 

1  Called  bibles,  not  because  they  had  anything  in  common  with  the  Bible, 
but  to  indicate  that  they  contained  the  truth,  and  the  truth  only. 


SATIRICAL  AND   ALLEGORICAL   POETRY  31 

the  beginning  of  the  13th  century  Andre  de  Coutances  com- 
posed the  biting  Roman  des  Francis.  Neither  were  our 
neighbours  across  the  Channel  less  sparing  of  satire  in  the 
Paix  aux  Anglais  (1264),  in  La  Charts  aux  Anglais,  or  in  the 
Dit  de  la  Rebellion  d'Angleterre,  at  the  beginning  of  the  14th 
century. 

Papal  and  royal  vices  were  also  attacked. 

Half-way  between  satirical  and  allegorical  poetry  may  be 
placed  certain  other  pieces  intended  mainly  to  amuse.  Such 
are  the  dits,  short  poems  on  events  of  daily  life  usually;  the 
ddbats,  disputes,  and  batailles,  generally  between  two  allegorical 
personages;  the  congds,  the  testaments,  ihefatrasies  or  nonsense 
verse,  and  the  cliastiements,  counsels  on  education  and  conduct, 
in  which  the  didactic  element  has  a  large  share. 

(2)  Allegorical  Literature. — The  earliest  is  found  in  the 
so-called  bestiaires,  treatises  on  natural  history,  in  which 
descriptions  of  symbolic  animals,  full  of  fanciful  science  and 
fabulous  traditions,  serve  as  a  basis  for  moralizing  and  reli- 
gious instruction.  When  precious  stones  or  birds  served  as  a 
pretext  to  inculcate  the  lesson  they  were  called  lapidaires  or 
volucraires.  These  fairy  tales  of  science  were  borrowed  from 
Latin  versions,  which  themselves  were  derived  from  Greek 
and  Eastern  sources.  The  earliest  versified  bestiaire  is  that  of 
Philippe  de  Thaon  (before  1135),  dedicated  to  Queen  Ae"lis 
of  Louvain.  In  its  symbolic  zoology  the  lion  and  the  pelican 
are  the  emblems  of  Christ,  the  unicorn  is  God,  the  crocodile 
is  the  devil,  and  so  on.  Philippe  is  also  remembered  as  the 
author  of  the  Comput,  a  popular  astronomy  in  verse,  containing 
a  calendar  for  the  use  of  priests.  In  the  13th  century 
Richard  de  Fournival  ( +  1260),  in  his  Bestiaire  d 'Amour,  made 
use  of  these  animal-stories  for  the  interpretation  of  human 
love. 

No  doubt  the  rise  of  allegory  was  in  part  furthered  by  such 
productions,  although  it  would  appear  to  have  spread  in  the 
main  from  sermons  and  theological  treatises,  in  which  the 
Seven  Deadly  Sins  and  other  abstractions  were  treated  as 
entities. 


32  MIDDLE  AGES 

The  representative  poem  of  allegorical  literature,  and  more- 
over the  most  remarkable  literary  achievement  of  the  Middle 
Ages,  is  the  Roman  de  la  Rose. 

The  Romance  of  the  Rose  is  not  a  homogeneous  whole.  It 
consists  of  two  distinct  parts,  written  at  different  periods 
by  two  different  poets,  the  one  representing  the  aristocratic 
spirit  and  the  other  the  democratic  spirit  of  the  fableaux  and 
of  the  Roman  de  Renard.  The  first  part,  of  4669  octosyllabic 
lines,  was  written  in  the  first  quarter  of  the  13th  century  by 
Guillaume  de  Lorris,  an  inhabitant  of  the  little  town  situated 
between  Orleans  and  Montargis;  the  second  part,  of  18,148 
octosyllabic  lines,  was  composed  forty  years  later  (about  1277) 
by  Jean  de  Meung  on  the  Loire. 

Guillaume's  poem  is  a  scholarly  allegorical  code  of  courtly 
love,  inspired  by  Ovid  and  Chretien  de  Troyes.  He  tells  us 
as  much  in  the  opening  lines: 

"  Ce  est  li  rommanz  de  la  rose 
Ou  I'art  d'amorz  est  tote  enclose". 

The  rose  is  the  emblem  of  the  beloved  lady.  To  pluck  the 
rose  in  the  garden  of  Delight  is  to  win  the  maiden,  but  to 
achieve  this  end  is  no  easy  matter: 

Wandering  one  May  morning  by  the  river  banks,  the  dreamer — for  all 
the  incidents  are  placed  in  the  setting  of  a  dream — finds  himself  outside 
the  walls  of  the  domain  of  the  god  of  Love ;  on  the  walls  are  painted 
figures  of  Hatred,  Envy,  Sadness,  Old  Age,  Poverty,  and  other  evil 
powers.  Introduced  by  Dame  Oiscuse  (Idleness),  he  is  attacked  by 
Cupid,  who,  taking  him  at  vantage,  empties  his  quiver  on  him  ;  he  yields 
himself  a  prisoner,  and  learns  Cupid's  commandments  on  the  evils  and 
gains  of  love.  Led  by  Bel  Accueil,  the  lover  approaches  the  rose,  but  he  is 
driven  back  by  her  guardians  Shame,  Fear,  Danger  (Resistance,  Refusal), 
Malebouche  (Slander),  and  Jealousy,  the  last  of  which  shuts  up  Bel 
Accueil  his  friend  in  a  tower.  The  poem  ends  with  a  lament  of  the 
lover. 

Such  in  brief  is  the  outline  of  Guillaume's  share  of  the  Ro- 
mance of  the  Rose.  When  Jean  de  Meung  took  up  the  parable 
in  his  continuation  he  maintained,  indeed,  the  essential  thread 
of  the  allegory,  and  finally  made  the  lover  cull  the  rose,  but  the 


HISTORY  AND   MISCELLANEOUS   PROSE  33 

story  in  his  hands  becomes  a  mere  pretext  for  satirical  digres- 
sions, affording  large  scope  for  his  vast  erudition,  dissertations 
on  pauperism,  property,  government,  the  Church,  justice, 
instinct,  the  nature  of  evil,  the  origin  of  society,  witchcraft, 
marriage,  women  in  general,  and  a  thousand  other  topics. 
His  share  of  the  work  is  a  vast  satirical  encyclopedia,  which 
supplements  the  pictures  of  medieval  life  offered  by  the  later 
branches  of  the  Roman  de  Renard. 

Jean  de  Meung  was  the  first  popularizer  of  rationalism, 
of  Nature  as  the  guide  of  life,  the  true  predecessor  of  Voltaire 
and  more  especially  of  Rabelais.  The  very  contrast  between  the 
two  parts  of  the  Romance  of  the  Rose  contributed  not  a  little 
to  its  enormous  success,  which  spread  far  beyond  France.  In 
the  following  century  it  was  severely  censured,  chiefly  on 
account  of  its  violent  attacks  against  women,  by  Gerson  and 
Christine  de  Pisan,  but  despite  that,  continued  in  favour  right 
into  the  16th  century,  thanks  to  Clement  Marot's  edition. 

The  Roman  de  la  Rose  did  more  than  any  other  single  poem 
to  assure  the  final  victory  of  allegory,  which  for  a  period  of 
two  hundred  years  pervaded  the  whole  of  literature. 


CHAPTER  V 

HISTORY  AND  MISCELLANEOUS  PROSE 

(1)  History  at  first  was  written  in  Latin  by  clerks  and 
monks,  for  the  lay  public  the  Chansons  de  Geste  and  narrative 
poems  taking  the  place  of  history. 

The  first  of  these  rimed  chronicles  is  due  to  Geffrei  Gaimar, 
whose  Histoire  des  Anglais,  in  octosyllabic  verse,  was  written 
between  1147  and  1151. 

Soon  after  Wace,  born  in  Jersey  about  1100,  and  later 
Canon  of  Bayeux,  composed  his  two  large  historical  poems, 
the  Rmnan  de  Brut  (1155),  in  16,000  lines,  and  the  Roman  de 
Rou  of  the  same  length.  The  first  is  a  compilation  of  Keltic 
traditions,  drawn  mostly  from  Godfrey  of  Monmouth,  in  which 

(  M  643  )  C 


34  MIDDLE   AGES 

Brut  or  Brutus,  the  grandson  of  JSneas,  is  represented  as 
the  ancestor  of  the  Britons;  while  the  Roman  de  Rou  sketches 
the  history  of  the  Dukes  of  Normandy  from  Rou  or  Rollo  to 
Henry  the  First  (912-1106). 

Before  Wace  could  finish  his  history  he  was  replaced  by  the 
more  fashionable  Benoit  de  Sainte-More,  to  whom  we  owe  the 
Chronique  des  Dues  de  Normandie. 

To  the  12th  century  also  belongs  the  poem  on  Saint  Thomas 
le  Martyr  by  Garnier  de  Pont  Sainte-Maxence,  notable  for 
the  fine  scene  in  which  the  murder  of  Becket  is  described. 

Still  more  remarkable  is  the  newly-discovered  Histoire  de 
Guillaume  le  Marshal,  Earl  of  Pembroke,  of  20,000  lines  or  so, 
by  an  anonymous  writer. 

When  it  was  found  that  verse  was  not  conducive  to  accuracy 
in  history,  the  rimed  chronicles  were  replaced  by  prose  nar- 
ratives. At  the  beginning  of  the  13th  century  a  French 
nobleman,  who  had  taken  part  in  the  fourth  crusade,  instead 
of  entrusting  the  recital  of  his  exploits  to  some  clerk,  took  it 
into  his  head  to  give  an  account  of  them  himself  in  French 
prose.  His  name  was  Geoffroy  de  Villehardouin.  He  was 
born  in  Champagne  about  1160,  and  died  in  1213  on  his  fief  at 
Messinopolis  in  Thessaly.  There  it  was  that  he  composed 
during  the  last  years  of  his  life  the  Chronique  de  la  Conquete  de 
Constantinople  (1207  c.),  the  first  great  prose  chronicle,  than 
which  no  other  single  poem  gives  a  better  idea  of  chivalry  and 
feudalism. 

Jean  de  Joinville  (1224-1317),  the  next  of  the  great 
chroniclers,  wrote  at  the  beginning  of  the  14th  century,  but 
his  work,  both  in  style  and  spirit,  belongs  to  the  same  century 
as  that  of  Villehardouin. 

He  was  past  eighty  when  Jeanne  of  Navarre,  wife  of  Philippe 
le  Bel,  invited  him  to  write  the  saintes  paroles  et  les  bons  faits 
of  Saint  Louis,  whose  devoted  companion  he  had  been  during 
his  six  years'  crusade  (1248  to  1254).  His  book,  the  Vie  de 
Saint  Louis,  was  only  completed  in  1305,  and  as  the  queen 
had  died  in  the  meantime,  it  was  dedicated  to  her  son,  after- 
wards Louis  X. 


HISTORY  AND   MISCELLANEOUS   PROSE  35 

Joinville  is  interesting  chiefly  on  account  of  his  keen  obser- 
vation and  the  colour  of  his  style. 

Prose  takes  complete  possession  of  the  historical  field  with 
Jean  Froissart,  the  last  of  the  chroniclers  proper. 

Jean  Froissart  was  born  at  Valenciennes  in  1337.  Of  his  early 
years  we  possess  no  reliable  information.  The  following  are  the  chief 
dates  in  his  later  life.  In  1361  he  journeyed  to  England,  receiving  a 
gracious  welcome  from  his  countrywoman,  Queen  Philippa  of  Hainault, 
wife  of  Edward  III,  who  appointed  him  clerk  of  her  chamber.  From 
1364  to  1368  he  travelled  widely,  visiting  Scotland,  Aquitaine,  and  Italy, 
where  he  met  Chaucer  and  Petrarch.  At  the  death  of  his  benefactrice 
he  returned  home;  became  curate  of  Lestines,  and  later  canon  of  Chimai 
(1385).  As  his  canonry  did  not  make  residence  obligatory,  and  as  he 
was  in  want  of  materials  for  his  Chronicle,  he  set  out  once  more  on  his 
travels,  returning  to  England  for  a  three  months'  stay  in  1395.  That 
same  year  he  came  back  to  France,  and  seems  to  have  died  soon  after 
1404. 

The  CJironiques  of  Froissart  include  the  period  1326-1400, 
and  deal  mainly  with  the  affairs  of  France,  England,  and 
Scotland,  although  they  likewise  supply  information  in  regard 
to  Germany,  Italy,  Spain,  and  even  occasionally  touch  on 
Hungary  and  the  Balkan  peninsula.  Froissart's  information, 
gathered  during  his  wanderings  in  many  lands,  is  often 
untrustworthy  or  partial.  His  merit  lies  in  the  vivid  pic- 
turesqueness  of  his  descriptions  and  in  his  brilliant,  sympa- 
thetic picture  of  chivalry. 

Next  in  order  comes  Philippe  de  Commines,  who  forms  a 
link  between  the  15th  and  the  16th  centuries. 

Philippe  de  Commines  was  born  at  the  castle  of  Commines,  near 
Courtrai,  in  1445.  In  1463  he  entered  the  court  of  Burgundy,  but  in 
1472  he  passed  over  to  the  cause  of  Louis  XI,  becoming  one  of  his  most 
trusted  advisers.  On  the  king's  death  he  incurred  the  displeasure  of  his 
successor,  Charles  VIII,  and  for  eight  months  he  was  imprisoned  in  an 
iron  cage ;  but  in  1 493  he  was  restored  to  a  measure  of  favour ;  he  accom- 
panied Charles  to  Italy,  and  there  met  the  famous  Machiavelli.  He  held 
places  and  pensions  under  Louis  XII,  and  died  in  1511. 

His  Mdmoires  (1488-1495),  which  were  not  published  till 
1523,  are  the  earliest  French  example  of  history  as  distin- 
guished from  the  chronicle.  For  the  knight-errantry  of 


36  MIDDLE  AGES 

Froissart  he  substitutes  a  diplomatic  shrewdness  and  a  wide 
curiosity,  applied  not  only  to  individuals  but  also  to  nations; 
he  abandons  brilliant  descriptions  for  psychological  observa- 
tions and  searchings  after  the  causes  of  events.  In  his  politics 
he  is  aristocratic  and  monarchical,  but  not  despotic;  his  ideal 
government  is  constitutional  and  parliamentary;  his  ideal  king 
one  who  knows  how  to  listen  to  advice,  and  who  leaves  the 
decision  of  peace  or  war  to  the  nation.  Hence  his  admiration 
for  England:  "De  toutes  les  seigneuries  du  monde  dont  j'ai  con- 
naissance  oil  la  chose  publique  est  mieux  traiUe,  oil  regne  moins  de 
violence  sur  le  peiiple,  oil  il  n'y  a  nul  e'difice  abattu  ni  ddmoli  par 
la  guerre,  c'est  I'Angleterre". 

Commines,  together  with  Villon  in  poetry,  is  the  first  of 
modern  writers.  Froissart  and  his  predecessors  ignore  the 
mass  of  humanity;  not  so  Commines,  whose  sympathy  for  the 
humble  and  the  oppressed  is  quite  a  modern  trait,  as  also  is 
his  curiosity  and  undogmatic  religiosity. 

(2)  Miscellaneous  Prose. — Among  the  miscellaneous  prose 
writings  of  the  Middle  Ages,  the  exquisite  chantefable  of 
Aucassin  and  Nicolette,  mainly  in  prose,  but  partly  in  asson- 
anced  laisses  of  seven-syllable  verse,  deserves  more  than  passing 
notice.  It  was  written  about  1150  in  the  Picard  dialect  by 
an  anonymous  author.  It  is  the  story  of  the  love  of  Count 
Garin  of  Beaucaire  for  the  beautiful  Saracen  maiden  Nicolette. 
But  by  far  the  best  conteur  of  the  Middle  Ages  is  Antoine  de 
la  Sallfe,  who  wrote  in  the  15th  century  at  the  court  of  Bur- 
gundy. He  is  the  author  of  the  graceful  Petit  Jean  de  SaintrS, 
in  which  he  traces  a  mock  portrait  of  the  ideal  knight;  of  the 
biting  Quinze  Joies  de  Manage,  a  satire  on  women;  and  also 
of  the  bright  Cent  Nouvelles  Nouvelles,  wrongly  attributed  to 
Louis  XI,  drawn  in  part  from  old  fableaux  and  in  part  from 
Boccaccio. 

Of  written  sermons  the  first  occur  in  the  12th  century.  Of  these  the 
best  are  those  of  Maurice  de  Sully,  Archbishop  of  Paris,  which  do  not 
offer  sufficient  literary  merit  to  account  for  the  extraordinary  popularity 
which  they  enjoyed  at  the  time. 

In   the  succeeding  period   the  palm   must   be  awarded   to   Gerson 


LATER   MEDIEVAL   POETS  37 

(1363-1429),  who  has  already  been  noticed  as  a  bitter  enemy  of  the 
Romance  of  the  Rose,  although  he  himself  underwent  its  influence. 

In  the  15th  century  the  two  preachers,  Olivier  Maillart  ( + 1502)  and 
Michel  Menot  (  +  1518),  courted  favour  by  descending  to  the  language 
of  the  populace.  Their  style  is  vivid,  but  often  coarse. 

Noteworthy  also  among  the  miscellaneous  prose  writings 
is  the  Trdsor  (1265  c.),  by  Dante's  master,  Brunetto  Latini, 
chiefly  on  account  of  the  author's  remarkable  testimony  to 
the  supremacy  of  the  French  language  in  his  time :  "  Et  se  (si) 
aucuns  demandoit  por  quoi  cist  livres  est  escriz  en  romans  selonc 
le  langage  des  Francois,  puisque  nous  somes  Ytaliens,  je  diroie  que 
ce  est  por  deus  raisons:  I'une,  car  nos  somes  en  France,  et  I'autre 
por  ce  que  la  parleure  est  plus  delitable  et  plus  commune  a  toutes 
gens  ". 

CHAPTER  VI 

LATER  MEDIEVAL  POETS 

With  the  15th  century  the  literature  of  the  Middle  Ages 
closes.  Without  being  an  epoch  favourable  to  poetry  or  to 
literature  in  general,  it  is  not  the  same  dreary  waste  as  the 
14th  century.  It  was  in  the  15th  century  that  the  medieval 
drama  produced  its  masterpiece,  the  famous  farce  of  Pathelin, 
that  Commines  wrote  his  Mdmoires,  and  that  two  real  poets 
appeared,  Villon,  a  man  of  the  people,  and  Charles  d' Orleans, 
the  last  representative  of  the  grace  and  refinements  of  chivalric 
society. 

Charles,  Due  d'Orleans  (1391-1465),  was  the  son  of  an  Italian 
mother,  Valentine  of  Milan,  and  of  Louis  of  Valois,  who  was  murdered 
by  John  the  Fearless.  In  alliance  with  the  infamous  Bernard  d'Arma- 
gnac  he  did  his  best  to  avenge  his  father.  He  commanded  at  Azincourt 
(1415),  and  was  taken  prisoner  and  carried  to  England,  where  he  spent 
twenty-five  years  in  captivity,  hunting,  hawking,  and  composing  light 
verse.  At  the  age  of  forty-nine  he  returned  to  France,  and  passed  his 
last  years  (1440-1465)  in  Epicurean  ease  at  his  little  court  of  Blois, 
where  he  had  gathered  around  him  a  small  circle  of  poets. 

His  works  consist  of   102  ballads,  400  rondels,  and  131 


38  MIDDLE   AGES 

chansons.  He  was  in  no  way  an  innovator  in  poetry;  he 
made  use  of  old  forms,  and,  like  his  predecessors,  he  remained 
faithful  to  Dame  Allegory,  but  he  transformed  the  old  material 
by  an  exquisite  sense  of  art.  His  range  is  small,  and  his  ideas 
lack  depth,  but  the  music  and  grace  of  his  light  verse,  espe- 
cially of  his  rondels,  has  rarely  been  surpassed.  His  favourite 
subjects  are  the  changing  seasons,  the  songs  of  the  birds,  lovers' 
fancies,  and  counsels  against  melancholy  and  care;  or,  in  his 
later  years  at  Blois,  when  the  springtide  of  love  was  past  for 
him,  the  deceiving  arts  of  the  fair  and  the  folly  of  those  that 
place  their  trust  in  them. 

His  style  is  clearness  itself,  and  he  is  almost  as  easy  to  read 
as  a  modern  poet. 

A  poet  of  infinitely  greater  genius  was  Francois  Villon. 

Villon. — Frai^ois  de  Montcorbier,  6r  Des  Loges,  for  his  patronymic  is 
not  known  for  certain,  was  born  at  Paris,  in  1431  probably.  He  owes 
the  name  of  Villon  to  an  ecclesiast  Guillaume  de  Villon,  who  took  an 
interest  in  him  and  sent  him  to  the  University  of  Paris,  where  he  took 
his  M.A.  degree.  Till  1455  Villon  had  steered  a  straight  course, 
but  having  killed  his  adversary  in  a  duel  he  was  compelled  to  flee 
from  justice.  Receiving  letters  of  pardon  six  months  afterwards,  he 
returned  to  the  capital.  It  was  on  the  occasion  of  his  first  departure 
that  he  composed  the  Petit  Testament,  a  collection  of  mock  bequests  to 
various  friends  and  enemies  with  autobiographical  details  and  allusions. 
The  consequences  of  his  first  crime  no  doubt  threw  Villon  out  of  the 
straight  path.  Resourceless  and  ostracized  he  joined  a  band  of  thieves, 
and  was  condemned  to  be  hanged  for  a  burglary  committed  by  his 
gang ;  but  the  capital  punishment  was  commuted  to  banishment.  His 
chief  work,  the  Grand  Testament,  an  amplification  of  the  smaller  one, 
alludes  directly  to  these  events  in  the  two  famous  ballads  DCS  Pcndus 
and  De  I'Appel. 

We  next  come  across  Villon  in  1461  at  Meung-sur-Loire,  in  the  cell 
of  the  local  prison,  where  he  had  been  confined  by  the  Bishop  of  Orleans. 
Louis  XI,  passing  through  Meung  after  his  recent  consecration,  to  cele- 
brate the  event  set  all  the  prisoners  at  liberty,  and  among  them  our 
poet. 

From  that  moment  we  lose  all  traces  of  the  reckless  vagabond.  He 
was  dead  when  the  Grand  Testament  appeared  in  1489. 

Villon's  fame  as  a  poet  rests  on  the  Grand  Testament,  which 
was  completed  in  1461.  He  conceived  the  idea  of  it  during 


LATER   MEDIEVAL   POETS  39 

his  incarceration  at  Meung,  and  finished  it  soon  after  his 
liberation.  It  consists  of  178  stanzas  each  containing  eight 
octosyllabic  lines,  in  which  about  a  score  of  minor  pieces, 
chiefly  ballads  and  rondeaux,  some  written  previously,  are  in- 
serted. The  poet  on  the  point  of  leaving  this  life  casts  a 
sorrowful  glance  over  the  past,  confesses  and  laments  the  errors 
of  his  wild  youth,  and  asks  forgiveness  of  God.  He  thanks 
his  friends  and  protectors,  curses  his  enemies,  and  bequeaths 
to  each  fanciful  legacies,  as  in  the  Petit  Testament.  The  chief 
attractions  of  Villon,  however,  are  not  the  satirical  portions 
of  his  jesting  bequests,  but  rather  those  short  poems  inter- 
spersed in  the  body  of  the  work,  such  as  the  famous  Ballade 
des  Dames  du  Temps  jadis  with  its  still  more  famous  refrain 
"mais  oil  sont  les  neiges  d'antan?"  (but  where  are  last  year's 
snows?),  in  which  the  poet  rises  to  the  conception  of  the 
universal  and  all-levelling  law  of  death;  while  almost  as 
familiar  is  the  epitaph  in  form  of  a  ballad  which  Villon  wrote 
for  himself  and  his  companions  when  expecting  to  swing  with 
them,  La  Ballade  des  Pendus.  In  this  ballad  of  death,  in 
which  there  is  an  antinomy  of  grim  humour  and  of  simple  but 
infinite  pathos,  the  skeletons  of  Villon  and  of  his  fellows  are 
supposed  to  address  the  passer-by,  who  contemplates  them 
dangling  on  the  gibbet  of  Montfaucon. 

Most  touching,  too,  is  he  in  the  expression  of  his  repentance 
for  his  lawless  and  debauched  life.  A  proof  that  this  repen- 
tance was  sincere  is  afforded  by  the  Ballade  gue  Villon  feit 
a  la  Requeste  de  sa  Mere.  Neither  was  he  lacking  in  patriotic 
fervour  and  in  accents  of  ingenuous  faith. 

But  his  merit  as  a  poet  is  not  only  intrinsic.  He  is  a 
past-master  in  the  technique  of  verse;  handling  with  extra- 
ordinary skill  the  most  artificial  forms  of  poetry,  such  as  the 
rondeau  and  the  ballade.  In  fact  he  has  never  been  equalled 
in  the  latter. 

Villon  represents  popular  tradition.  In  contrast  with  the 
aristocratic  Charles  d 'Orleans,  he  is  exclusively  a  representa- 
tive of  the  esprit  gaulois,  the  father  of  that  elite  of  essentially 
French  minds  to  which  belong  Marot,  Rabelais,  Regnier,  La 


40  MIDDLE   AGES 

Fontaine,  Moliere,  and  Voltaire.  But  more  than  that,  he  is  the 
first  modern  French  poet — modern  in  his  abandonment  of 
the  traditional  machinery  of  allegory  and  abstraction;  in  the 
complexity  of  his  feelings,  passing  from  mirth  to  despair,  from 
beauty  to  horror — modern  in  that  his  poetry  reflects  his  own 
personality. 

Villon  is  the  first  great  French  poet,  yet  he  cannot  be 
classed  among  the  greatest,  his  range  being  too  narrow  and 
limited. 

After  the  death  of  Charles  d'Orl^ans  and  of  Villon  the 
poetry  of  Machaut  and  his  companions  blossomed  forth  anew 
under  the  name  of  rhetoric.  The  most  famous  of  the  grands 
rluttoriqueurs  were  Jean  Molinet  (  +  1507),  Jean  Meschinot 
(  +  1509),  and  Guillaume  Cretin  (  +  1525),  parodied  by  Rabe- 
lais under  the  name  of  Raminagrobis. 

In  fantastic,  puerile,  and  inane  metrical  tricks  they  even 
went  one  better  than  their  predecessors.  The  following  lines 
from  Cretin's  works  will  give  an  idea  of  what  they  could  do : — 

"Pour  vivre  en  paix  et  '  concorde,  qu'on  corde ' 
Guerre,  et  le  chant  qu'  '  accord  d' 'die  cordette'; 
Qui  pour  chanter  A  '  sa  corde  s'accorde ', 
Mai  prcnd  son  chant ;   '  amour  telle  est  mortctte '. 
Guerre  a  toujours,  Dicu  '  scait  quelle  scquelle '; 
Livrcs  en  sont  de  plainctz  '  et  crys  escripts '; 
De guerre  sourt  bcaucoup  'plus pleurs'  que  (ris'." 

The  fame  of  the  grands  rhdtoriqueurs  was  as  great  in  their 
day  as  it  is  now  incomprehensible,  and  lasted  till  well  into 
the  16th  century.  Even  a  great  poet  like  Clement  Marot 
was  unable  to  free  himself  from  the  shackles  of  these  facteurs 
in  poetry,  as  they  most  appropriately  styled  themselves. 


BOOK  II 

SIXTEENTH   CENTURY 


GENEEAL  VIEW 

Two  leading  influences  dominate  the  literature  of  the  16th 
century — that  of  the  Renaissance  and  that  of  the  Reforma- 
tion. The  Renaissance  strove  to  revive  antiquity  in  its  ideas 
and  in  its  art;  the  Eeformation  to  return  to  a  more  primitive 
and  purer  form  of  Christianity. 

In  order  to  facilitate  the  study  of  the  main  currents  that 
characterize  the  development  of  French  literature  during  the 
16th  century,  it  is  advantageous  to  make  two  main  divisions. 
A  third,  extending  from  about  1585  to  the  first  years  of  the 
17th,  is  a  period  of  transition  betokening  new  ideals. 

(a)  First  Period  (1515-1549). — The  signal  for  the  Renais- 
sance came  from  Italy  and  was  given  by  the  Humanists,  who 
lent  fresh  life  to  the  forgotten  sense  of  antiquity.  The 
Middle  Ages  had  not  ignored  the  Latin  classics,  and  had  even 
translated  and  imitated  them,  but  only  as  a  means  of  arriving 
at  a  better  understanding  of  Christianity  and  of  improving 
moral  life.  The  chief  innovation  effected  by  the  Humanists 
of  the  16th  century  was  the  desire  to  study  and  understand 
antiquity  "  for  its  own  sake  ",  and  by  thus  doing,  to  transform 
the  very  base  of  education  and  intellectual  culture.  More- 
over, though  the  Middle  Ages  were  fairly  well  acquainted 
with  Latin  literature,  they  had  almost  wholly  ignored  Greek, 
which  was  looked  upon  as  the  language  of  the  chief  heresies. 
The  Humanists  were  the  first  to  give  Greek  an  equal  place 
with  Latin.  Other  causes  which  led  to  the  Renaissance  were 
the  consequences  of  the  wars  of  Charles  VIII,  Louis  XII, 


42  SIXTEENTH    CENTURY 

and  Francis  I.  The  contact  with  Italy  acted  as  a  kind  of 
revelation  upon  the  Frenchmen  of  those  days.  To  this  must 
be  added  the  peculiar  charm  of  the  Italian  climate  and 
manners.  The  Italy  of  the  Renaissance,  invaded,  devastated 
and  trampled  under  foot  by  these  men  of  the  north,  took 
possession  of  its  rude  conquerors,  as  Greece  of  yore  had  done 
in  the  case  of  the  inhabitants  of  Italy.  They  conceived  the 
idea  of  a  new  life,  freer,  more  ornate,  more  human  in  a  word, 
than  the  one  they  had  been  leading  for  centuries.  The  whole 
of  Europe  became  italianized,  almost  unawares,  and  in  less 
than  fifty  years  the  remnants  of  medieval  tradition  disap- 
peared. No  doubt  many  of  the  tendencies  peculiar  to  the 
Renaissance  already  existed  out  of  Italy,  but  it  was  Italian 
genius  which  gave  the  decisive  impulse. 

The  primary  characteristic  of  the  new  spirit  is  the  develop- 
ment of  individualism,  than  which  we  can  imagine  nothing 
more  directly  opposed  to  the  Middle  Ages.  It  is  for  that 
reason  that  Villon  and  Commines  may  be  considered  as  the 
first  among  modern  writers.  They  are  already  somebody. 
With  Clement  Marot  this  trait  becomes  more  accentuated, 
his  poems  being  filled  with  himself  and  himself  alone. 

From  this  free  exercise  and  development  of  the  faculties 
another  idea  springs,  which  can  be  called  the  leading  idea  of 
the  Renaissance,  and  of  which  Francois  Rabelais  is  justly 
looked  upon  as  the  living  incarnation— the  idea  of  the  good- 
ness or  of  the  divinity  of  nature,  the  contradiction  and  nega- 
tion of  what  the  schoolmen  and  the  theologians  had  taught 
for  more  than  a  thousand  years.  Rabelais  was  the  first,  with 
the  exception  of  Jean  de  Meung  in  the  13th  century,  among 
French  writers,  to  teach  that  the  great  foes  of  man  were 
custom,  rule,  authority,  and  restraint;  that  by  every  means 
in  his  power  it  is  man's  duty  to  attack  and  destroy  these 
enemies;  and  finally,  that  the  perfection  of  education  is  the 
liberation  of  the  instincts. 

(b)  Second  Period  (1549—1585  c.). — While  Rabelais  was  pub- 
licly and  cynically  setting  forth  the  religion  of  nature,  another 
sentiment  which  he  lacked  was  springing  up  and  developing 


GENERAL   VIEW  43 

among  a  few  of  his  contemporaries — the  sentiment  of  art,  in 
which  the  Middle  Ages  were  so  grievously  deficient,  and  which 
is  also  largely  characteristic  of  the  Renaissance.  Having  re- 
discovered nature  and  freed  the  individual,  the  Renaissance 
felt  that  the  development  of  neither  could  be  left  absolutely 
to  chance,  and  strove  to  make  imitation  of  nature  and  indi- 
vidual development  dependent  on  the  realization  of  beauty. 
The  poets  of  the  Pleiade,  and  especially  Ronsard  their  leader, 
were  the  first  to  perceive  the  full  force  of  this  new  sentiment, 
and  to  reveal  it  to  their  contemporaries.  They  aimed  at  pro- 
ducing "  works  of  art ",  and  this  ambition  accounts  for  and 
explains  their  subsidiary  efforts — their  scorn  for  old  literary 
forms,  their  imitation  of  classical  rhythmical  combinations, 
and  their  application  of  pagan  mythology  to  French  poetry. 
What  they  tried  to  steal  from  antiquity  was  not  its  philosophy, 
but  only  its  art.  Thus  they  were  the  first  to  point  to  the 
importance  in  literature  of  form  and  style,  which  are  among 
the  essential  factors  of  the  French  classicism. 

When  men  found  out  that  a  glorification  of  nature  could 
lead  to  a  justification  of  immorality,  and  that  they  were 
paying  too  dearly  for  the  benefits  of  the  Renaissance,  the 
Reformation  broke  out.  Nothing  could  be  more  erroneous 
than  to  represent  the  Reformation  as  analogous  in  its  principles 
to  the  Renaissance.  It  is  precisely  the  contrary.  The  only 
point  they  have  in  common  is  that,  for  a  short  time,  they 
fought  for  the  emancipation  of  the  individual,  and  consequently 
stood  face  to  face  with  the  same  enemies — the  schoolmen  and 
the  theologians.  In  preaching  the  Reformation  Luther  and 
Calvin  not  only  attacked  Papacy  and  Catholicism;  their 
object  was  to  destroy  the  Renaissance,  which  was  a  new  birth 
of  pagan  antiquity,  whereas  the  Reformation  represented  a 
return  to  primitive  Christianity,  as  we  have  already  said. 
This  explains  the  opposition  which  the  Reformation  encoun- 
tered at  first  in  France.  The  country  had  not  emancipated 
itself  from  the  bonds  of  scholasticism  and  asceticism  imme- 
diately to  relapse  into  the  tyranny  of  Protestant  Puritanism. 
France,  after  having  tasted  the  sweets  of  art  and  of  indepen- 


44  SIXTEENTH   CENTURT 

dence,  refused  so  early  to  be  weaned,  or  to  take  up  again  one 
of  the  Germanic  elements  which  it  had  cast  aside  as  being 
too  "Gothic".  The  race  asserted  itself,  and  each  went  its 
own  way. 

The  first  effect  of  this  transformation  was  what  has  been 
happily  called  the  Latinization  of  Culture.  Towards  1560, 
or  thereabouts,  in  spite  of  the  efforts  of  a  few  enthusiasts  like 
Henri  Etienne,  the  language  of  Homer  more  and  more  takes 
refuge  in  the  seclusion  of  the  colleges,  and  becomes  once  again 
the  object  of  the  attention  of  none  but  scholars  and  erudites. 
The  dramatists  of  the  16th  century  no  longer  go  to  Sophocles 
or  to  Aristophanes  for  lessons  in  their  art,  but  rather  to  Seneca 
and  Plautus,  and  French  writers  in  general,  finding  that 
Latin  had  qualities  more  in  keeping  with  the  genius  of  their 
race,  returned  to  Latin  tradition  after  the  short  poetic  intoxi- 
cation evoked  by  Greece. 

(c)  Third  Period  (1580-1605).— During  this  period  the 
remaining  traits  of  the  classical  period  begin  to  appear  in 
outline.  Firstly,  the  foundation  of  literature  on  psychological 
and  moral  observation  announced  by  Amyot's  translation  of 
Plutarch,  and  carried  out  in  the  Essays  of  Michel  de  Montaigne. 
Nature,  while  remaining  our  guide,  must  be  submitted  to  rule 
and  discipline.  Although  the  French  people  refused  to  accept 
the  sombre  and  despairing  morality  of  Calvin,  they  saw  the 
necessity  of  reacting  against  the  growing  licentiousness  of 
morals,  and  gradually  the  philosophy  of  reason  took  the  place 
of  that  of  nature.  Finally,  the  subordination  of  literature  to 
social  life,  which  was  to  prevail  in  French  literature  for  a 
period  of  nearly  two  hundred  years,  appears  clearly  in  the 
works  of  the  last  writers  of  the  century,  who  felt  that  the 
development  of  self  might  lead  to  the  ultimate  destruction  of 
society.  This  is  the  central  idea  of  French  classicism,  and  to 
see  it  fully  at  work  we  shall  have  to  wait  till  the  17th  century. 


POETRY  45 

FIEST  PERIOD   (1500-1549) 
CHAPTER  I 

POETRY 

Among  the  immediate  predecessors  of  Clement  Marot  one 
alone,  Jean  le  Maire  de  Beiges,  born  about  1473  at  Bavay 
(Latinized  into  Beiges),  in  Hainault,  deserves  more  than  pass- 
ing mention,  chiefly  on  account  of  the  real  influence  which  he 
exercised  in  his  time,  and  also  because  of  his  prose  work,  Les 
Illustrations  des  Gaules  et  Singularitez  de  Troie.  Both  Marot  and 
the  school  of  Ronsard  proclaimed  him  a  master.  Du  Bellay, 
in  the  literary  manifesto  of  the  PUiade,  declares  that  he  was 
the  first  to  illustrate  the  Gauls  and  the  French  language :  "  Luy 
dormant  beaucoup  de  motz  et  de  manieres  de  parler  poetiques,  qui 
ont  lien  servi  mesmes  aux  plus  excellens  de  nostre  tens  ",  while  the 
English  grammarian  Palsgrave  adduces  his  authority  in  his 
Esdaircissement  de  la  Langue  Fran$oyse. 

Although  Jean  le  Maire's  work  may  be  said  in  some  points 
to  foreshadow  the  Renaissance,  he  nevertheless  belongs  essen- 
tially to  the  school  of  the  grands  rhttoriqueurs,  of  whom  he  was 
by  far  the  greatest. 

Of  his  verse,  the  best  are  the  two  Epitres  de  VAmant  Vert 
a  Madame  Marguerite  (1505).  The  "green  lover"  is  Queen 
Margaret's  green  parrot,  who  dies  of  grief  at  her  departure, 
and  from  the  nether  regions  writes  an  account  of  his  journey 
to  his  beloved  mistress. 

In  the  Illustrations  des  Gaules  et  Singularitez  de  Troie  he 
attempts  to  prove  the  Trojan  origin  of  the  French  people, 
a  favourite  theme  in  the  Middle  Ages  and  16th  century.  It 
is  a  medley  of  crude  erudition,  in  which  turgidity  and  bom- 
bast alternate  with  graceful  fancy. 

By  far  the  greatest  among  the  poets  of  the  first  half  of  the 
16th  century  is  Clement  Marot. 

Clement  Marot  was  born  at  Cahors  about  1496.     He  was  the  son  of 
Jean  des  Mares,  surnamed  Marot,  one  of  the  later  rhttoriqueurs.     About 


46  SIXTEENTH   CENTURY — FIRST   PERIOD 

1515  Clement  entered  the  service  of  Princess  Margaret,  afterwards 
Queen  of  Navarre.  In  1524  he  followed  the  king,  Francis  I,  to  Italy, 
and  was  wounded  and  taken  prisoner  at  the  battle  of  Pavia.  Soon 
afterwards  he  was  imprisoned  on  a  charge  of  heresy,  in  spite  of  his 
protestations : 

"point  ne  suis  lutheriste 
Ni  zwinglien  et  moins  anubaptiste: 
Je  suis  de  Dieu  par  sonfils  Jdsus-Christ  (1525)". 

He  was  liberated  in  the  following  spring,  thanks  to  the  intervention  of 
Margaret,  his  patroness;  but  having  made  many  enemies  by  his  witty 
satires,  aimed  especially  at  the  Sorboune,  and  strongly  suspected  of 
leaning  to  Protestantism,  he  first  fled  to  the  court  of  the  Queen  of 
Navarre  (1535),  whose  sympathies  were  on  the  side  of  the  Reformers, 
and  later  to  that  of  the  Duchess  of  Ferrara.  He  returned  to  France  in 
1536,  but  only  on  condition  of  a  formal  abjuration.  The  great  success 
of  Marot's  translation  of  the  Psalms  awakened  the  suspicions  of  the 
Sorbonne ;  they  complained  to  the  king,  and  Marot  thought  best  once 
more  to  leave  France.  He  made  his  way  to  Geneva,  but  his  morals 
lacked  the  austerity  required  of  a  follower  of  Calvin,  and  he  went  on 
to  Turin,  where  he  died  in  1544. 

The  works  of  Marot  are  composed:  (a)  of  translations  and 
allegories,  such  as  the  translation  of  the  first  two  books  of  the 
Metamorphoses,  and  his  Temple  de  Cupido,  or  again  bis  Enfer; 
(b)  of  chants  royaux,  ballades,  and  rondeaux;  (c)  of  occasional 
pieces,  dtrennes,  blasons,  complaintes,  &c.;  (d)  of  his  translation 
of  fifty  of  the  Psalms. 

Both  by  poetic  inspiration  and  education  Marot  is  closely 
connected  with  the  preceding  century.  His  learning  is  that  of 
the  Middle  Ages: 

"  J'ai  lu  des  saints  la  Ugende  dorie, 
J'ai  lu  Alain,  le  tres  noble  orateur 
Et  Lancelot,  le  tres  plaisant  menteur. 
J'ai  lu  aussi  le  Roman  de  la  Rose, 
Maitre  en  amours,  et  Vatere  et  Orose 
Contant  lesfaits  des  antiques  Romains" 

As  a  proof  of  his  interest  in  earlier  literature  can  be  quoted 
his  edition  of  the  Roman  de  la  Rose,  and  of  Villon's  works — 
"  our  Ennius  ",  as  he  calls  him.  He  changed  practically  nothing 
in  the  traditional  medieval  verse-forms  and  rhythmical  com- 


POETRY  47 

binations,  and  Boileau  is  wrong  when  he  says  of  him  in  the 
Art  Poetiijue:  " Et  montra  pour  rimer  des  chemiiis  tout  nouveaux". 
His  immediate  masters  were  the  grands  rhttoriqueurs,  from 
whose  puerilities  he  could  never  completely  free  himself,1  and 
although  he  had  dipped  into  Virgil,  Ovid,  and  Catullus,  he 
is  essentially  a  national  and  popular  poet.  His  temperament 
had  much  in  common  with  that  of  Villon,  whom  he  surpassed 
in  clearness,  grave  and  sly  humour,  though  he  could  never 
attain  to  the  simple  pathos  of  the  earlier  poet.  Charming  a 
poet  as  Marot  is,  he  cannot  be  ranked  among  the  greatest;  he 
was  too  much  lacking  in  intensity  of  feeling,  picturesqueness 
of  vision,  and  vividness  of  style.  Except  in  the  translation 
of  the  Psalms,  where  the  subject  lent  him  some  dignity,  his 
work  is  in  the  main  pretty  rather  than  beautiful,  light  rather 
than  strong,  graceful  rather  than  grand.  He  never  could  rise 
to  higher  flights.  This  must  be  borne  in  mind  in  order  pro- 
perly to  understand  the  reform  attempted  by  Ronsard  and 
his  associates  in  the  second  half  of  the  century.  Marot's  great 
service  to  French  poetry  was  that  he  restored  naturalness  and 
simplicity,  and  substituted  native  grace  and  delicacy  for  the 
artificial  excess  of  ornament  and  allegory  of  the  grands  rMtori- 
queuers.  He  is  one  of  the  most  famous  representatives  of  the 
esprit  gaulois;  he  looks  back  to  Villon  and  forward  to  La 
Fontaine. 

Of  his  verse  the  most  characteristic  are  the  epistles  and 
epigrams.  Among  them  the  best  are  the  fable  of  the  Lion  and 
the  Rat ;  the  two  famous  epistles  to  the  king,  one  pour  avoir 
Me  derobt,  and  the  other  Du  Temps  de  son  Exil  a  Ferrare;  the 
epigrams  on  Semblan^ay,  or  the  one  to  the  Queen  of  Navarre. 
Some  of  his  ballads,  too,  are  delightful,  and  everyone  has  read 
the  famous  rondeau,  Au  Bon  Vieux  Temps  un  Train  d' Amour 
regnoit. 

In  the  epigram  Marot  has  never  been  surpassed;  indeed  his 
language  is  so  closely  connected  with  this  branch  that  all 

1  Cp.  the  equivocal  rimes  (mortel  itre  :  tel  fare ;  sous  France  :  souffrance ; 
arr/enticr  :  large  et  entier,  &c.)  which  occur  in  his  works,  or  the  famous 
ballade  of  thirty-nine  lines  with  rimes  in  ac,  ee,  ic,  oc,  and  «c. 


48  SIXTEENTH   CENTURY — FIRST   PERIOD 

French  writers  since  have  used  the  "Marotic  style"  when 
writing  this  kind  of  verse. 

In  point  of  style  and  language  he  was  a  purist,  as  is  proved 
by  the  fact  that  he  is  almost  as  easy  to  read  as  a  modern 
writer.1  It  is  probably  for  that  reason  that  at  all  times  he 
has  been  a  favourite  with  his  countrymen. 

We  have  seen  that  in  more  than  one  respect  Marot  continues 
the  Middle  Ages,  but  in  two  points  he  is  a  real  child  of  the 
Renaissance,  namely,  in  his  belief  in  the  goodness  of  nature, 
and  in  the  personal  note  which  pervades  his  whole  work. 

Among  Marot's  imitators  the  most  noticeable  is  Margaret 
of  Navarre  (1492-1549),  sister  of  Francis  I,  his  patroness. 
Her  poetry  presents  a  strange  mixture  of  gallantry  and 
mysticism.  In  the  Chansons  Spirituelles,  which  betray  the 
spirit  of  the  Reformation,  she  exhibits  genuine  feeling;  the 
verses  written  during  her  brother's  illness,  praying  for  his 
recovery,  being  especially  touching: — 

"  Oh,  qu'U  sera  le  bien  venu 
Celui  qui,  frappant  a  ma  porte, 
Dira:  Le  roi  estrevenu 
En  sa  santd  tres  bonne  ct  forte/ 
Alors  sa  sceur,  plus  mal  que  marte, 
Courra  baiscr  le  messager 
Qui  telles  nouvellcs  apporle 
Que  son  frere  est  hors  de  danger." 

She  also  composed  humorous  epistles  like  Marot,  and  dizains 
on  the  model  of  Petrarch,  but  in  her  later  years  her  verse  is 
almost  exclusively  religious:  "Elle  aimait  fort  composer  des 
chansons  spirituelles,"  says  Brantome,  "car  elk  avail  le  cceur  fort 
adonnd  a  Dieu  ".  The  greater  part  of  her  works  were  collected 
by  a  publisher  of  Lyons  in  1547,  under  the  title  of  Marguerites 
de  la  Marguerite  des  Princesses.  This  collection  includes,  besides 
poems,  four  mysteries  and  two  farces,  thus  showing  how  varied 
was  the  talent  of  this  most  gifted  woman,  who  so  admirably 
represents  the  genius  of  her  time.  She  is  also  the  author  of  a 
series  of  prose  tales,  which  will  be  noticed  elsewhere. 

'Already  in  the  17th  century  La  Bruy^re  had  noticed  this  peculiarity: 
"  Marot  par  son  tour  et  par  son  style  semble  avoir  icrit  depuis  Ronsard : 
il  n'y  a  guere  entre  Marot  et  nous  que  la  difference  de  quelques  mots  ". 


POETRY  49 

The  man  who  passed  as  the  greatest  poet  after  Marot's 
death  was  Melin  de  Saint- Gelais  (1487-1558),  to  whom 
French  verse  owes  the  introduction  of  the  Italian  sonnet,  so 
much  favoured  in  the  second  half  of  the  century.  His  fame 
was  short-lived,  being  eclipsed  by  the  appearance  of  the  PUiade. 

Saint-Gelais,  who  was  a  servile  imitator  of  the  Italians, 
sought  for  elegance,  but  fell  into  mannered  prettiness  and 
mawkishness ;  Melin  tout  de  miel  being  a  frequent  pun  among 
his  contemporaries.  He  was  the  literary  purveyor  of  court 
amusements  in  his  rondeaux,  quatrains,  and  poetical  mascarades. 
Like  Marot  and  most  of  his  followers,  he  affected  much  the 
blason,  which  celebrates  an  eyebrow,  a  lip,  a  jewel,  a  flower,  or 
a  precious  stone. 

The  transition  from  Marot  to  Ronsard  is  to  be  traced  chiefly 
through  the.  so-called  School  of  Lyons,  at  the  head  of  which 
stands  Maurice  Sceve,  and  which  includes  also  Louise  Labe, 
la  belle  cordiere,  as  she  was  called,  besides  several  other  lady 
poets,  and  Antoine  Heroet  (1492-1568). 

The  works  of  Maurice  Sceve  (  +  1564)  consist  of  Delie, 
Objct  de  plus  Haute  Vertu  (1544),  a  collection  of  449  poems  in 
honour  of  his  lady-love,  which  offer  a  strange  combination  of 
mysticism  and  intentional  obscurity,  though  certain  passages 
are  marked  by  great  intensity  of  feeling.  But  his  great  work 
is  the  Microcosme  (1562),  a  descriptive  poem  in  alexandrine 
verse,  of  three  cantos  each  of  a  thousand  verses,  in  which  the 
history  of  man  on  earth  is  set  forth. 

Maurice  Sceve  was  the  first  poet  in  the  16th  century  to 
have  a  real  feeling  for  art,  the  first  to  seek  inspiration  in  higher 
themes  and  break  with  court  and  occasional  poetry. 

It  is  for  that  reason  that  the  PUiade  saw  in  him  a  kindred 
spirit.  In  one  of  his  sonnets  Du  Bellay  celebrates  him  as — 

"  Gentil  esprit,  orncmcnt  de  la  France, 
Qui  d'Apollon  saintemcnt  inspire", 
T'es  le  premier  du  pcuple  retire', 
Loin  du  chemin  tract  par  V ignorance  ". 

And  fitienne  Pasquier  gave  proof  of  a  correct  appreciation  of 
Sceve's  position  when  he  wrote  in  his  liecherches:  "  Le  premier 

(11643)  D 


50  SIXTEENTH   CENTURY — FIRST   PERIOD 

qui  franchit  le  pas  fut  Maurice  Sccve,  Lyonnais",  but  he  was  also 
right  when  he  added  that  Delie  was  written  "  avec  un  sens  si 
teiidbreux  et  obscur  que,  le  lisant,  je  disois  estre  ires-content  de 
ne  I 'entendre,  puisqu'il  ne  vouloit  estre  entendu".  It  was  Marot's 
grace  and  Sceve's  higher  aspirations  that  Ronsard  and  his 
school  tried  to  combine. 

Louise  Labe  (1526-1566)  wrote  (a)  a  dialogue  in  prose,  Le 
Debat  de  Folie  et  de  V Amour,  an  allegory  after  the  old  school; 
(b)  twenty-four  sonnets,  of  which  one  is  in  Italian;  and  (c) 
three  elegies. 

Her  romantic  personality,  and  the  fact  that  she  was  idolized 
by  so  many  contemporary  poets,  has  led  to  an  over-estimation 
of  her  poetic  worth,  yet  her  sonnets  and  elegies,  though  often 
incorrect  and  stiff,  are  songs  of  a  true  passion  felt,  as  she 
declares,  "en  ses  os,  en  son  sang,  en  son  dme".  Amid  much 
antithesis  and  metaphor,  one  often  meets  lines  of  real  passion 
and  ardent  longing: 

"  D'un  tel  vouloir  le  serf  point  ne  dtsire 
La  libert^,  ou  son  port  le  navirc, 
Comme  f  attends,  Mas,  de  jour  en  jour, 
De  toi,  ami,  le  gracieux  retour". 


CHAPTER  II 

DRAMA 

The  history  of  the  Medieval  Drama  has  been  discussed  in  a 
preceding  chapter.  We  noticed  there  that  up  to  tlie  end  of 
the  first  half  of  the  16th  century  it  held  undisputed  sway, 
that  in  1548  the  Parliament  of  Paris  had  to  forbid  the  Con- 
fre"rie  de  la  Passion  to  further  represent  sacred  subjects,  and 
that  this  date  marks  the  official  end  of  the  old  drama. 

Of  those  who  wrote  medieval  plays  in  this  period  (1515- 
1549),  besides  Gringoire,  Nicole  de  la  Chesnaye  and  Jean  de 
Pourtalis  deserve  to  be  noticed.  The  first  wrote  the  alle- 
gorical Condamnation  du  Banquet,  and  the  latter  is  the  supposed 
author  of  the  Contredits  de  Songe-Crew  (1531),  a  satirical  review 
of  society  in  prose  and  verse. 


PROSE  51 

CHAPTER  III 

PROSE 

Among  the  prose  writers  of  the  first  half  of  the  16th  century 
the  greatest  name  is  that  of  Francois  Rabelais,  whose  real 
figure  has  been  obscured  by  popular  tradition,  which  fashioned 
a  new  Rabelais  after  the  model  of  his  book.  Rabelais  was  not 
a  buffoon  or  a  drunkard,  but  one  of  the  most  learned  men  that 
ever  lived,  who,  in  his  moments  of  leisure  and  for  his  own 
amusement,  composed  one  of  the  wittiest  books  in  the  world's 
literature. 

Francois  Rabelais  was  born  about  1490  at  Chinon  in  Touraine,  and 
educated  at  the  convent  of  La  Baumette,  near  Angers.  He  became  a 
novice  of  the  Franciscan  order,  and  entered  the  monastery  of  Fontenoy 
le  Comte,  where  he  had  access  to  a  large  library,  acquired  Greek, 
Hebrew,  and  Arabic,  and  studied  all  the  Latin  and  Old  French  authors 
within  his  reach,  medicine,  astronomy,  botany,  and  mathematics.  But 
the  Franciscans,  growing  jealous  of  his  wide  learning,  took  away  his 
books,  and  Rabelais  left  the  convent.  In  1524  he  was  allowed  to  pass 
over  to  the  Benedictine  order.  In  1530  he  entered  the  University  of 
Montpellier,  but  left  in  1522  for  Lyons  to  get  his  first  book,  parts  of 
Hippocrates  and  Galen,  published,  and  remained  there  as  physician  to 
the  hospital.  In  1532  and  the  following  year  he  was  engaged  on  literary 
work.  In  1534  he  accompanied  Cardinal  Du  Bellay  to  Rome,  where  he 
returned  in  1536.  From  1537  (when  he  took  his  doctorate)  to  1539  he 
taught  at  Montpellier.  He  then  went  back  to  Lyons,  returned  to  Paris 
in  1540,  and  once  more  made  things  right  with  the  Church,  obtaining 
permission  to  enter  the  collegiate  chapter  of  St.  Maur  des  Fosses  instead 
of  a  convent.  Francis  I,  who  was  well-disposed  towards  Rabelais,  died 
in  1547 ;  the  authorities  attacked  Rabelais  for  impiety,  and  he  was 
obliged  to  escape  to  Metz  and  thence  to  Rome,  in  the  company  of  Car- 
dinal Du  Bellay,  who  himself  was  suspected  of  liberal  tendencies. 
Through  the  protection  of  his  friends  he  was  enabled  to  return  in  1550, 
and  obtained  the  living  of  Meudon,  near  Paris,  which  he  gave  up  in 
1552.  On  the  appearance  of  the  fourth  book  of  his  great  work  a  new 
storm  broke  out ;  both  Catholics  and  Protestants  demanded  that  it 
should  be  suppressed  and  the  author  burnt,  but  .the  influence  of  his  patrons 
prevailed  once  more.  Rabelais  probably  died  in  the  next  year  (1553) 
at  Paris. 

Apart  from  his  medical  books,  the  fragment  of  an  almanac, 


52  SIXTEENTH    CENTURY — FIRST   PERIOD 

and  his  satirical  prophecy  for  the  year  1533,  the  Pantagrue'line 
Prognostication,  Rabelais'  work  consists  of  a  long  buffoon  epic 
on  a  fabulous  dynasty  of  giants,  Grandgousier,  Gargantua  his 
son,  and  Pantagruel,  son  of  Gargantua.  This  epic  is  made  up 
of  five  books,  the  first  devoted  to  Gargantua  and  his  parents, 
and  the  last  four  to  Pantagruel. 

The  date  of  the  composition  of  the  several  books  is  as  fol- 
lows: Pantagruel,  first  book,  1533;  Gargantua,  1535,  which  is 
the  refashioning  of  a  Chap  Book  published  by  Rabelais  in  1532 
under  the  title  of  Chrortique  Gargantuine;  Pantagruel,  second 
book,  1546;  Pantagruel,  third  book,  1552. 

Finally,  a  fourth  book  on  Pantagruel,  the  fifth  book  of  the 
whole  work,  appeared  in  15G2.  This  fifth  book  is  certainly  not 
entirely  by  Rabelais,  but  it  is  impossible  to  distinguish  what 
is  not  his  own.  Its  satire  is  much  too  bitter  and  bold  to  be 
entirely  the  work  of  one  of  the  shrewdest  and  most  prudent  of 
men,  who  was  prepared  to  maintain  his  opinions  "jusques  au 
feu,  exclusive".  It  sounds  more  like  a  Huguenot  pamphlet. 

A  short  analysis  of  the  five  books  follows. 

First  Book,  Gargantua. — Relates  the  birth,  childhood,  and  education 
of  Gargantua;  his  arrival  in  Paris  on  his  big  mare,  and  his  successful  war 
against  King  Picrochole.  At  the  end  of  the  war  Gargantua  constructs 
the  famous  Abbey  of  Thelema  to  reward  the  zeal  and  gallantry  of  the 
monk,  brother  Jean  des  Entommeures.  In  the  earlier  part  of  the  book 
the  most  interesting  pages  are  those  where  Rabelais  contrasts  the  medi- 
eval education,  the  one  which  Gargantua  received  at  first,  which  consists 
mainly  in  drinking,  eating,  sleeping,  and  learning  by  heart,  with  the 
more  modern,  which  he  afterwards  receives  from  his  new  tutor  Pono- 
crates,  and  which  embraces  a  union  of  bodily  and  mental  exercise, 
hitherto  kept  apart,  strict  observation  of  the  laws  of  hygiene,  daily  prac- 
tice in  all  kinds  of  athletics,  outdoor  lessons  in  astronomy,  and  instruction 
derived  from  amusement  itself. 

Second  Book,  Pantagruel. — The  plan  of  this  book  is  almost  identical 
with  that  of  the  first,  though  more  fanciful  and  less  didactic.  It  relates 
the  birth,  education,  and  wars  of  Pantagruel.  But  the  main  point  of 
difference  is  that  we  are  for  the  first  time  introduced  to  the  incomparable 
Panurge,  the  fellow  of  Shakespeare's  Falstaff  in  his  lack  of  morals,  and 
inexhaustible  wit,  who  becomes  the  devoted  and  inseparable  companion 
of  Pantagruel, 

Third  Book. — This  book,  save  for  one  short  episode,  is  entirely  occu- 


PROSE  53 

pied  with  the  adventures  and  exploits  of  Panurge,  who  for  his  services 
in  the  late  war  is  appointed  Lord  of  Salmigondin,  "an  estate  producing 
a  revenue  of  6,789,106,789  royals  certain,  besides  a  varying  income 
arising  from  periwinkles  and  locusts,  which  might  amount  to  2,435,768 
or  2,435,769  gold  moutons  ".  After  leading  a  dissipated  life  for  some 
time,  Panurge  is  suddenly  alarmed  at  the  idea  of  being  without  anyone 
to  look  after  him  in  case  of  illness.  He  consults  his  master  as  to  whether 
it  would  not  be  wiser  for  him  to  marry,  a  question  which,  from  now  till 
the  end  of  the  fifth  book,  determines  the  course  of  the  story.  Panurge 
consults  in  turn  the  sortes  Virgiliance,  the  sibyl  of  Panzoust,  the  old  poet 
Raminagrobis,  Herr  Trippa,  the  greatest  professor  of  astronomy,  geo- 
mancy,  chiromancy,  and  other  sciences.  None  of  these  giving  a  satis- 
factory answer,  he  turns  from  the  wisdom  of  the  ancients  to  that  of  the 
moderns :  the  theologian  Hippothadeus,  the  physician  Rondibilis,  the 
judge  Bridlegoose,  who  gives  his  decisions  by  the  throw  of  a  dice,  are 
approached  for  advice,  but  none  can  give  a  decisive  reply.  In  despair 
Panurge  and  his  friends  go  to  the  fool  Triboulet,  who  recommends  them 
to  try  the  oracle  of  the  Divine  Bottle,  la  Dive  Boutcille,  which  can  only 
be  reached  by  a  long  and  perilous  journey  in  unknown  seas,  and  among 
islands  little  visited. 

Fourth  Book. — They  embark  at  St.  Malo.  The  ships  are  laden  with 
every  kind  of  provisions,  and  they  start  on  their  distant  expedition, 
which  is  described  in  detail  in  the  last  two  books.  The  quest  is  long  and 
perilous;  in  each  island  at  which  the  party  touch  some  social  or  ecclesi- 
astical abuse  is  held  up  to  ridicule :  the  Island  of  Procuration,  the  land 
of  litigation  and  chicane,  where  the  Pettifoggers  and  Catchpoles  live — 
by  being  beaten;  the  Island  of  Tapinois  (Sly-Land),  where  reigns  Prince 
Quareme-Prenant,  the  personification  of  Lent,  "the  standard-bearer  of 
the  ichthyophagists,  the  father  and  foster-father  of  physicians";  the 
He  Farouche,  inhabited  by  the  fanatical  Protestants;  the  blessed  Island 
of  Papimanie,  where  the  fanatical  Papists  dwell,  &c. 

Fifth  Book. — On  the  fourth  day  the  pilot  sights  the  He  Sonnante,  or 
Isle  of  Ringing,  another  satire  on  the  Catholic  Church,  and  this  time  a 
bitter  and  angry  one.  Next  the  lawyers  and  judges  are  again  and  more 
severely  handled  under  the  name  of  Chats  Fourres  (Furred  Cats),  at 
whose  head  stands  Grippeminaud.  Shortly  after  the  travellers  arrive  at 
the  port  of  Matseotechny  (Vain  Art),  in  the  kingdom  of  Queen  Quint- 
essence, whose  officers  "cut  fire  into  streaks  with  a  knife",  or  "try  to 
catch  the  wind  with  nets".  Finally  they  arrive  at  their  journey's  end, 
and  consult  the  oracle,  whose  reply  is  the  word  "  Trincq" — drink,  that 
is  of  the  pure  water  and  wisdom  of  knowledge.  Such  a  question  as  that 
of  Panurge  is  not  worthy  to  attract  the  attention  of  a  sage. 

The  exuberant  mirth  and  rich  epic  life  of  Rabelais'  story  no 
doubt  contains  a  deeper  meaning  than  appears  on  the  surface. 


84  SIXTEENTH   CENTURY— FIRST   PERIOD 

The  writer  himself  in  the  preface  declares  that  the  reader  must 
"break  the  bone  in  order  to  suck  the  marrow",  if  he  wishes  to 
get  at  the  hidden  truth.  In  the  same  passage,  however,  he 
speaks  of  the  "doctrine  absconce"  and  the  "mystkres  horrifiques" 
which  his  story  contains.  Those  bombastic  expressions  show 
plainly  that  Rabelais  is  jesting,  jesting  at  the  mania  of  the 
Middle  Ages  of  wishing  to  interpret  all  things  allegorically. 
They  are  obviously  a  warning  not  to  give  way  to  a  systematic 
allegorical  explanation  of  the  whole.  Eabelais  relates  much 
purely  out  of  love  for  his  subject,  especially  the  coarse  jests 
and  obscenities  with  which  the  work  abounds,  and  those  who 
seek  a  deeper  meaning  here  resemble  the  officers  of  Queen 
Quintessence,  who  try  to  catch  the  wind  with  their  nets.  The 
opinion  that  Rabelais'  book  is  a  complicated  puzzle  cannot  too 
much  be  guarded  against;  the  satire  of  scholasticism,  of  law- 
yers, of  the  mad  adventures  of  chivalry,  of  monks,  and  of  the 
Romish  court — where  it  exists,  is  obvious  enough,  and  not 
very  revolutionary  either,  if  we  except  the  fifth  book,  which  is 
certainly  interpolated.  Rabelais'  main  object  was  to  amuse, 
occasionally  to  instruct  and  moralize,  but  without  feint  or 
disguise. 

What  is  still  plainer  is  Rabelais'  philosophy  of  life,  his  mili- 
tant faith  in  nature  and  instinct,  the  source  of  the  18th- 
century  ethics  and  of  modern  French  realism,  to  which  he  has 
given  concrete  form  in  the  famous  Abbey  of  Thelema,  an 
abbey  whose  rule  has  but  one  Single  clause :  "  Do  what  thou 
wilt,  because  men  who  are  free,  well  born,  well  educated,  and 
conversant  with  honourable  company,  have  naturally  an  in- 
stinct which  prompts  them  to  virtuous  actions  and  withdraws 
them  from  vice.  This  is  called  honour.  .  .  .'J1 

Since  nature  is  good,  and  we  hold  our  faculties  from  her, 
let  us  develop  them  to  the  utmost  extent,  unhampered  by 
ascetic  restraint  or  by  other  artificial  trammels  in  ethics  or 
philosophy;  let  man  be  as  complete  a  man  as  it  lies  in  his 
power  to  be.  Such  is  Rabelais'  ideal,  as  it  was  to  be  that  of 
Goethe  more  than  250  years  after. 

1  Cp.  also  the  allegory  of  Physics  and  Antiphysics  (Pantagruel,  iii.  32). 


PROSE  55 

Rabelais'  style  is  national  and  picturesque,  full  of  the  most 
original  and  attractive  imagery;  but  too  often  his  power  of 
verbal  invention  gets  the  better  of  him,  and  then  his  language 
becomes  quite  a  verbal  orgy — metaphors,  synonyms,  proverbs, 
Latinisms,  neologisms,  and  endless  enumerations  being  jumbled 
together  in  the  utmost  confusion.  He  was  a  very  great  writer, 
but  totally  devoid  of  any  feeling  for  beauty. 

The  influence  of  Rabelais  is  seen  in  the  numerous  story- 
writers  of  the  time.  Not  to  mention  several  authors,  who 
directly  imitated  or  parodied  Pantagruel,  the  two  most  famous 
names  are  those  of  Bonaventure  Des  Periers  and  the  poetess 
Margaret  of  Navarre,  whose  collection  of  tales  appeared  in 
1558  under  the  title  of  Heptame'ron  des  Nouvelles.  The  series, 
which  was  designed  to  equal  in  number  that  of  Boccaccio's 
Decameron,  is  incomplete.  A  company  of  ladies  and  gentlemen 
detained  by  floods  on  their  return  from  the  Pyrenean  baths, 
beguile  the  time  by  telling  these  tales.  Margaret  was  directly 
inspired  by  Boccaccio,  except  that  her  stories  are  all  real; 
"une  chose  diffdrente  de  Boccace,  c'est  de  n'dscrire  nouvelle  qui 
ne  /tit  veritable  histoire",  as  she  informs  us  in  the  preface. 
Most  of  them  are  borrowed  from  court  life.  The  hero  of 
No.  25  is  Margaret's  own  brother,  King  Francis  I;  and  No. 
10  is  the  story  of  the  authoress's  own  life.  Only  about 
half  a  dozen  farcical  stories  occur,  the  greater  majority  being 
love  stories  nearly  as  offensive  to  us  as  those  of  the  Decameron. 
The  riskiness  of  the  Heptame'ron  is  a  little  surprising,  in  one 
who  was  known  to  her  contemporaries  as  a  good  and  pious 
lady;  but  then  we  must  not  forget  that  they  are  only  shocking 
according  to  the  proprieties  of  our  time,  and  that  Margaret 
wrote  in  the  16th  century,  at  a  time  when  it  was  thought 
quite  legitimate  to  laugh  at  the  immoralities  of  monks  and 
priests.  In  short,  the  grossness  of  some  of  the  stories  merely 
exemplifies  the  grossness  of  the  language  and  manners  of  the 
time.  The  Heptame'ron,  as  is  proved  by  the  Dialogues,  which 
separate  the  days,  was  written  for  the  purpose  of  moral  edifi- 
cation, strange  as  that  may  seem  to  us. 

Bonaventure  Des  Periers  (1500c.-1544c.)  is  the  author  of 


f>G  SIXTEENTH    CENTURY — FIRST   PERIOD 

the  Nouvelles  lidcreations  et  Joyeux  Devis  (1558),  in  which 
Rabelais'  influence  is  evident,  although  Des  Periers  is  more 
temperate,  and  does  not  lapse  into  the  exaggerations  of 
Rabelais'  wit  and  the  monstrosities  of  his  style.  He  is  more 
in  the  spirit  of  the  old  French  farces  and  fullcaux.  The  Ji/i/ri/./: 
Devis  are  almost  solely  a  collection  of  anecdotes,  in  which  love 
stories  give  way  to  farces.  The  majority  of  the  tales  have 
their  scene  in  France:  "Je  ne  mis  point  alU  chercker  mes  contes 
a  Constantinople,  11  Florence  ni  a  Venise",  says  the  author  in 
the  delicious  introduction,  where  he  adds  with  more  subdued 
Pantagruelism,  "Je  vous  donne  de  quoi  rous  rejouir,  qui  est  la 
meillcwe  chose  que  puisse  faire  I'homme ".  Most  of  them,  too, 
are  taken  from  hearsay  or  from  the  author's  own  experiences. 
The  tone  is  occasionally  free,  but  more  often  quite  harmless. 

Des  Periers  also  wrote  the  Cymbalum  Mundi,  a  violent  attack 
against  the  gospels  and  the  theologians,  both  Catholic  and 
Protestant.  As  a  poet  he  belonged  to  the  school  of  Marot. 
He  likewise  attempted  vers  mesures,  or  quantitative  verse,  and 
translated  Horace  into  vers  blancs,  or  unrimed  verse. 

While  Rabelais  was  exuberantly  proclaiming  his  doctrine  of 
the  goodness  of  nature,  a  stern  and  sombre  counter-cry  came 
from  Jean  Calvin,  the  leader  of  the  Reformation  in  France, 
the  representative  of  the  new  spirit  of  intransigent  reform, 
and  attempted  restoration  of  primitive  Christianity. 

Jean  Calvin  was  born  in  1509,  at  Noyon  in  Picardy,  where  his  father 
was  procurcur-fiscal,  and  secretary  of  the  diocese.  He  studied  theology, 
and  then  law  at  Orleans.  From  Orleans  he  went  to  Bourges,  where  he 
learned  Greek,  and  began  to  preach  the  reformed  doctrines.  He  made 
his  literary  debut  with  a  Latin  commentary  on  Seneca's  de  dementia. 
After  the  famous  discourse  of  Nicolas  Cop,  rector  of  the  Sorbonne,  which 
had  been  inspired  by  Calvin,  the  latter  was  obliged  to  quit  Paris  and 
take  refuge  at  Angouleme.  As  persecution  was  raging  so  hotly  against 
the  heretics,  Calvin  no  longer  felt  safe  in  France,  and  proceeded  to  Bale. 
In  1536  he  issued  his  famous  work  the  Institutio  Christiance  Rcliyionis. 
The  same  year  he  went  to  Ferrara  in  Italy,  revisited  his  native  town, 
sold  his  paternal  estate,  and  set  out  for  Strasburg  by  way  of  Geneva, 
where  the  reformer  Farel  persuaded  him  to  remain  and  assist  in  his  work. 
But  the  party  of  the  libertins,  or  free-thinkers,  gaining  the  upper  hand, 
Calvin  and  Farel  were  expelled  from  the  town  (1538).  The  same  year 


PROSE  57 

he  settled  in  Strasburg,  where  he  married.  In  1541  the  Genevans, 
wearying  of  libertine  license,  invited  Calvin  to  return,  and  after  some 
hesitation  he  accepted  the  invitation.  During  fourteen  years  he  carried 
on  a  struggle  against  the  libertins,  overcame  all  opposition,  and  finally 
set  up  an  autocratic  theocracy  in  Geneva,  which  became  the  religious 
centre  of  the  French  Reformation.  He  died  in  1564. 

Calvin  was  a  young  man  of  twenty-seven,  living  obscurely 
in  BJile,  when  the  imprisonment  and  burning  of  the  Reformers 
by  Francis  I,  rousing  him  to  indignation,  called  forth  his 
famous  letter  to  Francis  (1535).  Silence,  he  said,  would  have 
been  treason.  In  this  letter,  which  the  year  after  was  pre- 
fixed to  his  great  theological  work  the  Institutio  Christiance 
Reliijionis,  he  protests  against  the  accusations  of  those  who 
had  wished  to  persuade  the  king  that  the  followers  of  the 
Eeformation  were  nothing  but  rebellious  and  seditious  sub- 
jects. In  1540  Calvin  translated  the  Institutio  into  French. 
The  Institution  de  la  Religion  Chrdtienne  is  the  first  theological 
treatise  written  in  the  French  language,  and  by  opening  up 
a  wide  field  of  thought  to  those  ignorant  of  Latin,  marks  an 
epoch  in  the  history  of  that  language. 

It  is  composed  of  four  books:  of  God;  of  Jesus  as  a 
Mediator;  of  the  Effects  of  His  Mediation;  of  the  Exterior 
Forms  of  the  Church.  Like  Luther,  Calvin  founded  his 
doctrine  exclusively  on  the  word  of  God  as  contained  in  the 
Bible.  But  while  Luther  accepted  everything  from  the 
Catholic  Church  which  did  not  directly  contradict  the  Bible, 
Calvin  rejected  everything  that  could  not  be  expressly  referred 
to  God's  law. 

Calvin's  central  idea  is  the  doctrine  of  predestination,  as 
contained  in  the  Epistle  to  the  Romans,  ix.  10-23:  Man  is  a 
fallen  being;  his  will  and  -his  righteousness  are  both  powerless 
to  obtain  salvation;  God,  of  his  mere  good  pleasure,  pre- 
destines some  men  to  eternal  life  without  any  regard  to  their 
goodness  or  virtue,  and  condemns  others  to  eternal  death  "  in 
order  through  their  damnation  to  glorify  his  majesty";  the 
Son  of  God  came  to  earth  to  redeem  the  elect  only.  At  the 
same  time,  and  in  the  midst  of  this  sombre  theology,  Calvin 


58  SIXTEENTH   CENTURY — FIRST   PERIOD 

finds  room  to  deliver  attacks  against  the  sacraments  of  the 
Church,  the  celibacy  of  priests,  the  authority  of  the  Holy 
See,  &c. 

In  the  case  of  Calvin  the  style  is  indeed  the  man — stern, 
imperious,  lofty,  and  gloomy. 

The  Institution  is  the  first  great  prose  work  of  the  16th 
century. 

In  contrast  also  to  the  positive  spirit  of  Rabelais  and  his 
followers  stands  the  famous  Amadis  des  Gaules  (1540-1548), 
translated  from  the  Spanish  of  Montalvo  and  his  successors  by 
Herberay  des  Essarts  (  +  1550c.).  It  is  a  continuation,  as  it 
were,  of  the  Romances  of  the  Round  Table  and  its  chivalric 
ideals,  which,  coming  back  to  France  from  Spain,  were 
fashioned  by  the  author  to  suit  the  tastes  of  his  contem- 
poraries. The  characteristics  of  the  Amadis  are  knightly 
adventures,  courtly  gallantry,  daring  deeds  of  arms,  and  a 
love  of  the  supernatural.  The  leading  personages,  besides 
Amadis,  the  son  of  King  Perion  of  Wales  and  of  an  Armorican 
princess,  are  Galaor  his  brother,  Oriane  his  future  wife,  and 
their  son  Esplandion.  Des  Essarts  only  translated  the  first 
eight  books,  but  he  had  imitators  and  continuators.  In  the 
same  way  as  Montalvo's  four  books  had  multiplied  to  twelve, 
so  did  the  eight  of  Des  Essarts  extend  to  twenty-four  (1550- 
1613),  but  it  was  the  first  eight  books  which  became  especially 
popular,  being  translated  into  English,  German,  and  Dutch. 
"On  y  pouvait  cueillir  toutes  les  belles  fleurs  de  notre  langue ", 
says  Pasquier. 

The  extraordinary  vogue  of  the  Amadis  des  Gaules  lasted 
till  the  advent  of  the  17th-century  pastoral  and  chivalric 
romance,  which  it  had  called  into  existence. 


POETRY  59 


SECOND   PEEIOD   (1549-1605) 
CHAPTER  I 

POETRY 

The  second  half  of  the  century  marks  the  advent  of  a  new 
poetic  school,  whose  ideal  finds  expression  in  a  group  of  writers 
who  styled  themselves  the  Pleiade,  and  at  whose  head  stands 
Pierre  de  Ronsard. 

After  deafness,  consequent  on  a  serious  illness,  had  closed 
for  him  the  avenue  to  public  life,  Ronsard  resolved  to  seek 
fame  in  another  path,  and  to  throw  himself  ardently  into  the 
study  of  antiquity.  With  that  end  in  view  he  shut  himself 
up  in  the  College  Coqueret.  There  he  met  a  number  of 
students  animated  with  the  same  desire,  and  who  also  shared 
the  lessons  of  the  principal,  Jean  Daurat,  the  famous  Hellenist. 
Around  Ronsard  gathered  the  "Brigade",  composed  of  Bai'f, 
Joachim  Du  Bellay,  Remi  Belleau,  and  Ronsard  himself, 
which,  by  and  by,  with  the  addition  of  Pontus  de  Thyard, 
Jodelle,  and  their  common  master,  Daurat,  was  to  become  the 
PUiade,  in  allusion  to  the  seven  stars  of  the  Pleiad,  and  also 
to  their  Greek  prototypes  of  the  court  of  the  Ptolemies. 

Dissatisfied,  after  a  careful  study  of  antique  models,  with 
the  state  of  the  French  language  and  literature,  they  conceived 
for  that  language  an  ideal  of  literary  beauty  which  should 
rival  the  ideal  of  antiquity. 

In  the  first  place,  it  was  necessary  to  clear  the  ground,  and 
thus  a  great  part  of  their  doctrine  is  purely  negative,  and  in 
direct  opposition  to  their  predecessors,  Clement  Marot  and  his 
school.  In  the  second  place,  they  asserted  against  the  pedan- 
try of  humanism,  the  latiniseurs  and  grdcaniseiirs,  that  their 
native  tongue  was  capable  of  such  rivalry,  and  proposed  to 
show  by  what  means  it  could  be  made  to  attain  to  this 
end. 

At  length,  in  1549,  they  flung  out  their  manifesto,  the  most 


60  SIXTEENTH   CENTURY — SECOND   PERIOD 

important  study  in  literary  criticism  of  the  century.  The 
work  was  by  Du  Bellay,  but  breathed  the  spirit  of  Ronsard. 
It  was  styled  Ddfense  et  Illustration  de  la  Langue  Franchise. 
During  the  same  year  and  the  next  Ronsard  and  Du  Bellay 
published  poetical  works  illustrating  the  theories  of  the  seven 
associates.  The  excitement  in  the  camp  of  Marot  and  his 
followers  was  great,  but  in  spite  of  a  counter-manifesto,  the 
struggle  did  not  last  long,  and  already  in  1550  Ronsard  was 
fully  established  and  looked  upon  as  the  prince  of  poets. 

To  obtain  a  just  insight  into  the  theories  of  the  PUiade  it 
is  necessary  to  take  into  consideration,  beside  Du  Bcllay's 
manifesto,  the  Art  Po6tique  (1565),  and  the  two  prefaces  of  the 
Frandade  (1572-73  or  4),  both  works  of  Ronsard,  which  form 
a  complement,  and  generally  a  confirmation,  of  the  Defense  el 
Illustration.  The  attempts  of  Ronsard  and  his  school  at 
literary  reform  bear  on  three  principal  points: 

(a)  The  formation  of  a  poetic  diction  distinct  from  that 
of  prose.  Struck  by  the  fact  that  the  poetic  language  of  the 
Greeks  has  a  vocabulary,  forms,  and  turns  of  its  own,  the 
PUiade  tried  to  create  a  language  peculiar  to  poetry — richer, 
more  expressive,  and  more  sustained  than  prose.  To  that 
end  they  did  not  borrow  wholesale  words  from  Greek  or 
Latin,  as  has  sometimes  been  supposed. 

The  well-known  lines1  of  Boileau  on  Ronsard  have  no 
foundation  in  fact.  The  PUiade  sought  to  innovate  with  dis- 
cretion, and,  apart  from  the  Greek  and  Latin  words  which 
were  already  current  in  the  16th  century,  they  only  borrowed 
mythological  adjectives  and  classical  proper  names.  Far  from 
encouraging  poets  to  talk  a  kind  of  latinized  French,  Ronsard 
especially  recommends  them  to  write  "  in  French  ",  and  warns 
them  against  the  pedantry  of  those  fooliers  limousins  who  prefer 

1  "Ronsard  qui  le  suivit  (Marot)  par  une  autre  me'thode, 
R&jlant  tout,  brouilla  tout,  Jit  un  art  a  sa  mode, 
Et  toutcfois  longtemps  cut  un  heureux  dcstin. 
Mais  sa  muse,  en  fran^ais  parlant  grec  et  latin, 
Vit  dans  I' dye  suirant,  par  un  retour  grotesque, 
Tomber  de  ses  grands  mots  le  faste  pedante&que. 
Ce  poete  orgueilleu.c,  tr&ntchA  de  si  haut, 
Rendit  plus  retcnus  Desportes  et  Bcrtaut." — Art  Pottique, !. 


POETRY  61 

collauder  and  contemner  to  loner  and  mtpriser.1  What  does 
occasionally  impart  to  the  poetry  of  the  Pttiade  a  foreign 
classical  look  is  the  excessive  use  of  mythological  adjectives 
and  classical  proper  names.  Compare,  for  example,  the  follow- 
ing lines  from  Ronsard's  Odes: — 

"  Mais  tout  soudain,  d'un  haut  style  plus  rare, 
Je  veux  sonner  le  sang  Hcctorean, 
Changeant  le  son  du  Dircean  Pindare 
Au  plus  haut  bruit  du  chantre  Smyrnean  "; 

and  also  certain  processes  of  construction  inspired  by  the 
study  of  the  poetry  of  the  ancients,  to  which  they  had  recourse 
for  the  attainment  of  their  proposed  select  and  aristocratic 
idiom  for  verse.  They  recommend  the  use  of  adjectives  for 
nouns  or  adverbs  ("  le  /rat's  des  eaux  ",  "  il  vole  Uger  ");  of  para- 
phrases like  "  le  Pere  foudnyant ",  instead  of  Jupiter,  and  "  la 
Vierge  chasseresse"  instead  of  Diana.  The  other  innovations 
which  they  introduced  were  eminently  French,  and  consist  of 
no  more  than  200  new  words,  borrowed,  a«cording  to  their 
doctrine,  from  old  French  (greigneur,  souloir,  de~duit,  guerdon, 
los,  &c.);  from  the  dialects  (harsoir  -  hi er  soir,  lesson  =jumeau, 
bers  =  berceau,  &c.);  from  the  technical  vocabulary  (creuset,  brisdes, 
erre,  havet,  maillet,  &c.);  or  composed  either  by  provignement  or 
derivation  (enrocher,  engemmer,  blondoyer,  vanoyer,  sourcer,  douce- 
let,  seulet,  &c.),  or  by  juxtaposition  (chewe-pied,  fier-hunble, 
donne-vin).  The  first  manner  of  juxtaposing  words  is  alone 
blameworthy;  the  two  others  are  in  the  spirit  of  the  language 
(cp.  aigre-doux  and  portefeuille,  in  modern  French);  but  the  later 
followers  of  the  PUiade,  and  especially  Du  Bartas,  by  too 
prodigal  a  use  of  them  brought  them  into  discredit. 

(b)  The  substitution  of  classical  forms  for  the  older  forms 
of  French  poetry.  On  this  point  the  Defense  et  Illustration  is 
very  explicit:  rondeaux,  ballades,  virelais,  chants-royaux,  chansons, 
are  to  be  cast  aside,  and  replaced  by  odes  like  those  of  Horace 
or  of  Pindar,  by  the  elegy,  epigram,  or  sonnets  in  the  manner 

1  Compare  also  Ronsard'p  words  in  the  second  preface  to  the  Franciadc: 
"  (Test  un  crime  de  lezc-majesU  d'ahandonner  le  lanyage  de  son  pays,  vivant 
etfleurissant  pour  vouloir  dctcrrer  je  ne  sqay  quelle  ccndre  des  anciens  ". 


62  SIXTEENTH   CENTURY — SECOND   PERIOD 

of  Petrarch.  Fatrasies,  too,  and  Cotj-a-l'diic  must  give  way  to 
regular  satire,  and  moralities  and  farces  yield  to  tragedy  and 
comedy  modelled  on  Seneca  and  Plautus. 

(c)  A  revolution  of  versification.  On  matters  of  versifi- 
cation the  Defense  says  very  little.  Du  Bellay  is  content  to 
recommend  the  cultivation  of  rich  but  not  over-curious  rimes. 
As  if  conscious  of  the  gap,  Ronsard  gives  us  fuller  information. 
In  fact,  the  innovations  in  rime  and  rhythm  are  the  personal 
work  of  the  genius  of  Ronsard.  More  liberal  than  Du  Bellay, 
he  permits  enjambement,  or  the  carrying  over  of  a  clause  begun 
in  one  line  into  the  next  without  any  break.  He  also  allows 
hiatus  on  the  ground  of  classical  example;  but,  more  impor- 
tant, to  Ronsard  is  due  the  reintroduction  of  the  alexandrine, 
especially  in  lyrical  poetry,  and  the  honour  of  having  imposed 
it  on  later  writers  as  the  French  verse  par  excellence,  and  also 
of  having  created  almost  all  the  rhythms  used  after  him,  and 
even  some  which  are  still  unutilized. 

In  conclusion,  we  cannot  do  better  than  to  quote  the  fol- 
lowing lines  from  Ronsard,  which  so  eloquently  sum  up  the 
aspirations  of  the  PUiade,  and  the  reform  attempted  and 
carried  out  by  them  and  their  leader: — 

"  Je  vy  que  des  Francois  le  langage  trap  bas 
A  terre  se  trainoit  sans  ordre  ny  cornpas: 
Adonques  pour  hausser  ma  lanyue  maternelle, 
Indonte  du  labeur,  je  travaillay  pour  die, 
Je  fis  des  mots  nouveaux,  je  r'appelay  les  vicux, 
Si  lien  que  son  renom  je  poussay  jusqu'aux  Cieux. 
Je  fys,  d'autre  fa$on  que  n'avoyent  les  antiques, 
Vocables  composcz  et  phrases  poetiques, 
Et  mis  la  Poesie  en  tel  ordre  qu'apres 
Le  Francois  fut  egal  aux  Romains  et  aux  Grecs." 

By  far  the  most  important  members  of  the  FUiade  are 
Pierre  de  Ronsard  and  Joachim  Du  Bellay. 

Ronsard  was  born  in  1524  at  Venddme,  of  an  old  family  of  Hungarian 
origin.  At  an  early  age  he  entered  the  service  of  the  son  of  Francis  I, 
and  afterwards  that  of  James  V  of  Scotland.  After  his  return  to  France 
he  was  sent  on  various  diplomatic  missions.  These  journeys  and  the 
fatigues  of  court  life  undermined  his  health,  and  he  was  struck  with 


POETRY  63 

deafness,  and,  as  we  have  seen,  resolved  to  devote  his  life  to  the  study 
of  antiquity  and  art.  Already,  a  year  after  the  publication  of  the 
Pleiades  manifesto,  Ronsard  was  recognized  as  the  greatest  living  poet, 
and  during  a  period  of  forty  years  was  destined  to  occupy  this  lofty 
position.  Never  was  man  placed  so  high  by  the  universal  admiration 
of  his  contemporaries;  his  works  were  translated  into  nearly  all  the 
languages  of  Europe ;  Tasso  sought  his  advice ;  the  Italians  placed  him 
above  Petrarch ;  Mary  Stuart  and  Queen  Elizabeth  vied  with  one 
another  in  sending  him  gifts,  and  his  deafness  made  people  compare  him 
to  Homer.  His  death,  at  the  close  of  1585,  was  felt  as  a  national 
calamity,  and  princely  honours  were  paid  to  his  tomb. 

Eonsard's  poetic  work  can  be  divided  into  four  periods. 

(a)  From  1550  to  1554,  fresh  from  the  teaching  of  Daurat, 
he  is  an  exaggerated  and  indiscreet  humanist — the  devoted 
follower  of  Pindar  and  Petrarch.  The  first  three  books  of 
the  Odes  are  an  attempt  at  a  resuscitation  of  the  former,  and 
though  he  -could  not  rise  to  the  height  of  his  original,  yet  the 
study  of  Pindar  trained  him  in  the  handling  of  sustained 
periods  of  verse,  and  interested  him  in  complex  lyrical  com- 
binations. Then  followed  the  Amours  de  Cassandre,  closely 
modelled  on  Petrarch,  and  partaking  rather  of  the  artificial 
character  of  old  French  "  courteous  "  poetry  than  of  the  pas- 
sionate character  of  modern  lyricism. 

(6)  From  1554  to  1560  he  abandons  Pindar,  and  imitates 
the  poets  of  the  Alexandrine  school,  a  collection  of  whose 
works  had  just  been  published  by  Henri  Etienne,  under  the 
impression  that  they  were  those  of  Anacreon.  In  1555-6  he 
composed  Les  Amours  de  Marie,  a  blending  of  voluptuous  ardour 
and  melancholy;  the  fourth  and  fifth  book  of  Odes,  Gallic  in 
tone  and  spirit,  and  recalling  the  chansons  of  Marot;  and  some 
Hymnes  after  the  pattern  of  Callimachus,  in  which  description 
and  rhetoric  prevail. 

(c)  From  1560  to  1574  Eonsard  was  in  part  a  court  poet. 
In  this  period  he  also  wrote  the  Discours  sur  les  Miseres  de  ce 
Temps,  aimed  at  the  Huguenots,  and  which  may  be  said  to  have 
endowed  French  literature  with  the  satire,  and  began  his  epic 
poem  the  Franciade,  fortunately  left  unfinished.  In  this  poem 
Eonsard  discourses  on  the  travels  of  a  fabulous  son  of  Hector, 


64  SIXTEENTH   CENTURY — SECOND   PERIOD 

Francus,  who,  after  the  fall  of  Troy,  pursued  by  fate,  finally 
lands  in  Gaul  and  conquers  that  country. 

(d)  From  1574  to  1584  his  work,  though  scarcer,  is  more 
profound  and  personal.  It  is  the  period  of  his  admirable 
Sonnets  &  Hettne,  in  which  the  poet  is  really  himself. 

Ronsard's  genius  is  mainly  elegiac  and  lyrical.  He  is  ex- 
quisite whenever  by  chance  his  intentions  as  a  scholar  tally 
with  his  temperament,  or  whenever  the  poet  gets  the  bettei 
of  the  humanist.  He  is  unsurpassed  in  the  so-called  seconv 
dary  kinds  of  poetry,  but  in  higher  themes  inspiration  too 
often  fails  him.  Before  all  else  he  is  a  master  of  his  instru- 
ment— the  creator  of  endless  rhythms  and  verse-combinations 
unknown  to  his  predecessors. 

After  Ronsard,  the  brightest  light  in  the  poetical  constel- 
lation is  undoubtedly  Joachim  Du  Bellay. 

Joachim  Du  Bellay  was  born  in  1525  at  Lyre,  near  Angers,  of  an 
illustrious  family.  After  an  unhappy  youth,  which  left  indelible  traces 
of  melancholy  in  his  character,  he  proceeded  to  Poitiers  to  study  law-; 
soon  after  he  became  acquainted  with  Ronsard  and  joined  Daurat's  band. 
The  same  year  as  the  Defense  et  Illustration  dc  la  Langue  Franfaise  (1549) 
he  published  a  collection  of  sonnets  in  honour  of  Mile  de  Viole,  under 
the  anagram  "Olive".  In  1551  he  accompanied,  as  intendant,  his  cousin 
Cardinal  Du  Bellay  to  Rome,  but  a  diplomatic  career  proved  uncongenial 
to  him.  Abandoned  by  the  cardinal  and  his  friends  his  health  grew 
rapidly  worse,  and  he  died  in  1560. 

Du  Bellay's  Sonnets  h  Olive,  written  in  the  style  of  Petrarch, 
are,  with  a  few  exceptions,  strained  and  affected,  falling  far 
short  of  their  model.  Later,  Du  Bellay  recanted,  and  went  so 
far  as  to  write  a  satire  against  the  Petrarchists.  At  Rome  for 
the  first  time  the  poet  found  his  true  self :  he  is  no  longer  a  pure 
imitator,  but  translates  into  verse  his  most  intimate  feelings. 
In  the  AntiquiUs  de  Rome1  he  expresses  the  sentiment  of  ruins 
for  the  first  time  in  French  literature.  Du  Bellay  had  started 
for  Rome  full  of  enthusiastic  hopes,  which  his  first  impressions 
did  not  belie.  He  was  soon  undeceived :  the  cynical  intrigues 
of  the  Pontifical  court,  the  corruption  of  Roman  society,  in- 

1  Translated  by  Spenser  under  the  title  of  the  Ruins  of  Rome. 


POETRY  65 

different  health,  the  torments  of  an  unhappy  love,  and  a  long- 
ing for  his  "sweet"  province  of  Anjou — all  this  tended  to 
embitter  his  natural  melancholy  and  to  depress  his  spirits.  A 
reflection  of  this  mood  is  found  in  the  Sonnets  of  his  Regrets, 
partly  satirical,  which  appeared  in  1559,  and  are  indisputably 
his  best  work.  About  the  same  time  Du  Bellay,  by  the  publi- 
cation of  the  Jeux  Rustiques,  charming  rural  poems,  of  which 
the  best  are  the  well-known  Vanneur  de  BU1  and  V6nus, 
showed  that  his  poetic  genius  was  not  one-sided.  These  were 
followed  by  the  Poete  Courtisan,  a  regular  satire  against  court 
poetasters. 

Du  Bellay  is  the  most  original  and  personal  of  the  poets  of 
the  PUiade.  Though  he  was  the  enthusiastic  spokesman  of  the 
new  school,  his  lyrical  inspiration  often  triumphed  over  the 
somewhat  narrowing  spirit  of  his  associates.  This  struggle 
between  originality  and  theory  explains  a  certain  number  of 
contradictions  in  his  poetical  productions  as  well  as  in  the 
Defense. 

The  other  members  of  the  Pleiade  are  of  comparatively 
little  importance,  with  the  exception  of  Jodelle  (vide  Drama). 
They  offer  nothing  which  cannot  be  found  in  Ronsard  and 
Du  Bellay,  and  much  which  is  only  a  caricature  of  their 
genius. 

Thus  Antoine  de  Bai'f  (1 532-1 589)  strove  to  revive  the 
quantitative  metrical  system  of  classical  verse.  He  wrote 
several  volumes  of  vers  mesure"s,  as  they  were  then  called. 
Most  of  the  poets  of  the  16th  century  tried  their  hand  at 
such  verse,  but  soon  abandoned  the  attempt  as  contrary  to 
the  genius  of  the  language.  Baif  has  been  blamed  for  having 
tried  to  forge  comparatives  and  superlatives  after  the  Latin 
pattern :  doctior,  doctisme,  &c.  This  he  did,  but  only  jestingly. 

Remi  Belleau's  (1528-1577)  poetry  is  purely  of  the  descriptive  kind, 
but  occasionally  redeemed  by  a  delicate  feeling  for  nature.  His  most 
interesting  production  is  the  Pierres  Prdcieuses,  an  adaptation  of  the 
medieval  lapidary  to  the  taste  of  the  Renaissance. 

Ronsard  and  the  Pleiade  inaugurated  the  French  classical 

1  Translated  by  Andrew  Lang  in  Ballads  and  Lyrics  of  Old  France, 
(11643)  B 


66  SIXTEENTH   CENTURY — SECOND   PERIOD 

school.  Their  work  was  continued  by  Malherbc,  and  brought 
to  perfection  later  by  Boileau.  They  maintained  that  the 
true  poet  could  not  do  without  study  and  art;  that  nature 
unassisted  does  not  produce  masterpieces,  and  that  the  ancients 
.alone  must  be  our  guides.  What  they  often  failed  to  perceive 
was  the  link  which  unites  antiquity  and  truth,  imitation  and 
originality;  the  masterpieces  of  Greece  and  Rome  are  admir- 
able not  because  they  belong  to  antiquity,  but  because  they 
are  founded  on  the  imitation  of  nature  and  on  the  reason. 
The  second  great  fault  of  the  school,  due  to  its  intellectual 
and  aristocratic  spirit,  is  that  they  dried  up  for  two  centuries 
the  spring  of  popular  and  spontaneous  poetry.  Yet  they  did 
not  suppose,  like  some  of  the  writers  of  the  17th  century,  that 
the  total  play  of  emotion  must  be  rationalized  by  the  under- 
standing; occasionally  a  poem  is  the  outcome- of  personal  and 
sincere  feeling. 

The  Reformation,  too,  had  its  poets:  Guillaume  Salluste, 
Seigneur  du  Bartas,  a  contemporary  of  Ronsard,  and  Theodore 
Agrippa  d'Aubigne,  whose  capital  work  only  appeared  in  the 
17th  century,  but  who  in  spirit  is  wholly  of  the  16th  cen- 
tury. 

Guillaume  Salluste  du  Bartas  (1544-1590)  began  by  the 
publication  of  Judith  (1573),  an  epic  poem,  in  which  the  Catho- 
lics saw  an  apology  for  regicide.  This  was  followed  up  by 
his  chief  work,  La  Premiere  Semaine  (1579),  and  its  continuation 
La  Seconde  Semaine  (1584).  The  first  Semaine  is  a  long  epic 
poem  on  the  creation  of  the  world,  an  adoration  of  the  Al- 
mighty in  the  marvels  of  nature,  while  the  second  Semaine  is 
a  kind  of  universal  history.  The  popularity  of  this  epic  was 
immense,  and  in  a  few  years  it  had  passed  through  thirty 
editions.  Although  its  conception  is  not  without  grandeur, 
and  a  few  passages  of  real  beauty  are  to  be  found  in  the  midst 
of  much  laboured  and  rhetorical  description,  it  is  difficult  for 
us  now  to  account  for  this  contemporary  enthusiasm,  confined, 
as  it  may  largely  have  been,  to  the  followers  of  the  Reforma- 
tion who  wished  to  oppose  Du  Bartas  to  Ronsard.  The  style 
and  language  of  Du  Bartas  are  absolutely  devoid  of  art — rough 


POETRY  67 

and  barbarous.  His  rimes,  too,  are  often  provincial.  He  is 
a  kind  of  caricature  of  Ronsard,  and,  together  with  Baif,  is 
responsible  for  the  discredit  into  which  the  chief  of  the  Ple"iade 
fell.  He  makes  an  especial  abuse  of  the  Homeric  compounds  < 
introduced  by  the  Pleiade  ("Le  feu  donne-darU,  porte-chaud, 
jette-flamme",  "Mercure  eschelle-ciel,  invente-art,  aime-lyre",  &c.). 
A  list  of  more  than  300  such  compounds  has  been  compiled  from 
his  works.  To  gain  effect  he  also  affects  the  repetition,  in 
nursery  wise,  of  the  first  syllable  of  a  word  ("les  flo-flottantes 
et  bou-bourdonnantes  ondes  ").  In  spite  of  Milton's,  Byron's,  and 
Goethe's  admiration  for  Du  Bartas,  he  is  but  a  very  mediocre 
poet,  always  copious,  rarely  majestic,  and  nearly  always  turgid. 
His  works  as  a  whole  are  unreadable  now,  in  spite  of  a  few 
fine  passages  scattered  over  the  body  of  the  Semaine. 

Theodore  Agrippa  d'Aubigne  (1550-1630)  was  a  greater 
poet.  In  his  early  verse,  Le  Printemps,  Hdcatombe  a  Diane,  &c., 
he  is  nothing  but  a  belated  Ronsardist,  lacking  in  taste,  while 
in  the  Creation,  closely  modelled  on  Du  Bartas,  he  is  even  more 
flat  and  frigid  than  his  master.  But  these  were  only  initiatory 
efforts.  The  passions  of  the  Reformation  period  awoke  him  to 
his  true  poetic  vocation,  and  from  a  poet  of  the  court  and  of 
love,  transformed  D'Aubigne  into  an  angry  satirist.  The 
Tragiques  is  the  first  notable  work  in  French  after  the  manner 
of  Juvenal.  It  was  begun  in  1577,  after  the  battle  of  Castel- 
Jaloux,  and  continued  on  different  occasions  till  1594,  but  did 
not  appear  as  a  whole  till  1616.  It  presents  a  picture  of  the 
ills  which  afflicted  France  during  the  religious  struggles.  In 
the  first  three  cantos,  entitled  Miseres,  Princes,  La  Chambre 
Dore~e,  D'Aubigne  describes  the  civil  wars,  the  corruption  of 
the  court,  and  the  infamy  of  the  tribunals,  ready  to  sell  Justice 
to  the  highest  bidder.  The  last  four  cantos,  Feux,  Fers,  Ven- 
geance, Jugement,  show  the  martyrs  of  the  new  faith  dying  at 
the  stake  or  in  the  dungeon,  butchered  on  St.  Bartholomew's 
night;  and  in  spite  of  those  persecutions  the  steady  growth  of 
the  Reformed  Church,  the  executioners  struck  by  divine  ven- 
geance on  this  earth  or  condemned  to  eternal  torture  by  the 
tribunal  of  God. 


68  SIXTEENTH   CENTURY— SECOND   PERIOD 

The  Tragiques  as  a  whole  is  wearisome  reading.  Force, 
imagination,  abundance  of  images,  a  few  fine  verses.1  occur  side 
by  side  with  obscurity  of  diction,  superfluity  of  detail,  repe- 
tition, and  painful  effort. 

Victor  Hugo  was  well  acquainted  with  the  Tragiques,  and 
many  a  passage  in  his  Chdtiments  recalls  the  influence  of 
D'Aubigne. 

Other  works  of  D'Aubigne^  are:  Sa  Vie  a  ses  Enfants,  which 
covers  the  period  between  1557  and  1618;  L'Hisloire  Univer- 
selle,  an  apology  of  militant  Calvinism  (1550-1601);  a  reli- 
gious pamphlet  called  La  Confession  de  Sancy,  which  has  been 
called,  and  not  without  justice;  the  first  of  the  Provindales. 
In  it  D'Aubigne^  supposes  a  good  Huguenot  nobleman,  who  has 
become  converted  to  the  Catholic  religion  and  confesses  his 
past  errors.  It  is  a  model  of  ironical  satire.  After  the  Tra- 
giques, D'Aubigne°s  best-known  production  is  the  satirical  tale 
Les  Aventures  du  Baron  de  Fceneste.  De  Fceneste  (derived  from 
<JMivetrOai)  relates  in  half-Gascon  French,  and  in  boastful  and 
partly  ironical  language,  his  experiences  during  his  travels, 
on  the  field  and  chiefly  at  court,  to  the  Huguenot  M.  D'Enay 
(from  efvai).  D'Aubigne  contrasts  the  man  who  appears — the 
sponging  and  penniless  courtly  Panurge,  whose  whole  existence 
is  founded  on  show,  and  who  with  his  last  penny  purchases  a 
tooth-pick,  instead  of  bread,  to  show  that  he  has  dined  copi- 
ously— with  the  man  that  is,  the  man  who  lives  upon  his  estate, 
among  his  rustic  neighbours,  tilling  his  fields  and  serving  his 
people  and  his  native  land. 

Ronsard's  influence  lasted  till  the  end  of  the  16th  century; 
but  the  poets  of  that  period,  instead  of  imitating  the  classics 
and  attempting  higher  themes,  preferred  the  antitheses  and 
hyperboles  of  the  lighter  and  softer  Italian  lyrics.  They  were 
absolutely  devoid  of  originality  and  creative  power;  often  the 
prettiest  passages  in  their  poetry  are  only  plagiarisms  from 
beyond  the  Alps.  Form  is  their  chief  merit 

1  Cp.  Les  corbeaux  noircissant  les  jMvittons  du  Louvre;  Us  sont  vStus  de 
Uanc  et  laves  de  pardon;  L'air  nest  plus  que  rayons,  tant  il  est  sem£  d'anges; 
A  I'heure  que  le  del  fume  de  sang  et  d  'times. 


DRAMA  69 

These  remarks  apply  especially  to  Philippe  Desportes  (1546-1606), 
the  type  of  the  court  poet.  He  composed  sonnets,  odes,  elegies,  mas- 
carades,  and  translated  parts  of  Ariosto's  Orlando  Furioso,  and  also  the 
Psalms.  His  verse  is  elegant  and  graceful,  but  not  unfrequently  spoiled 
by  conceits  and  affectation. 

Jean  Bertaut  (1522-1611)  wrote  gallant  and  religious  lyrics  in  imi- 
tation of  Desportes.  He  is  less  artificial,  but  still  more  affected  than  his 
master. 

Jean  Vauquelin  de  la  Fresnaye  (1535-1606)  deserves  notice  as  the 
author  of  the  first  collection  of  regular  satires,  which,  however,  were 
largely  borrowed  from  the  Italian  Sansovino.  To  him  we  also  owe  an 
Art  Poetique  (1575),  in  which  the  tenets  of  the  Ple"iade  are  formulated. 

More  interesting  than  these  is  Jean  Passerat  (1534-1602),  a  poet  of 
the  Gallic  tendency  of  Villon  and  Marot.  His  works  (1606),  consisting 
of  sonnets,  elegies,  epigrams,  eclogues,  and  light  verse,  are  witty  and 
in  good  taste.  The  eclogue  Cat  in,  and  the  vilanette,  J'ai  perdu  ma 
tourterdle,  will  always  appeal  to  the  reader  of  French  literature. 


CHAPTER  'II 

DEAMA 

The  blow  dealt  to  the  medieval  drama  by  the  Decree  of 
the  Parliament  of  Paris  (1548)  was  followed  up  the  year  after 
by  an  appeal  in  Du  Bellay's  Defense  et  Illustration,  inviting 
future  playwrights  to  turn  to  antiquity  for  their  models,  and 
to  replace  the  medieval  plays  (miracles,  mysteries,  moralities, 
farces,  and  sotties)  by  regular  comedy  and  tragedy  based  on 
classical  models:  "Quant  avx  comedies  et  tragedies,  si  les  roys  et 
les  republiques  les  voulaient  restituer  en  leur  ancienne  dignitd  qu'ont 
usurpe'e  les  farces  et  moralitez,  je  seroys  Men  d' opinion  que  tu  t'y 
employasses  ". 

Jodelle  responded  to  this  invitation,  and  three  years  after 
the  Defense  he  inaugurated  the  modern  drama  with  the  tragedy 
of  CUopatre  and  the  comedy  of  Eugene,  which  were  both  per- 
formed on  the  same  day  by  Jodelle  himself  and  some  of  his 
friends  in  the  College  de  Boncourt,  in  presence  of  the  court. 
As  Ronsard  says,  Jodelle 

" .  .  .  le  premier  d'une  plainte  hardie 
Franfoisement  sonna  la  grecque  trage'die, 


70  SIXTEENTH   CENTURY — SECOND   PERIOD 

Puys,  en  chanr/eant  de  ton,  chanta  devant  nos  roia 
Lajeune  comddie  en  langage  franqois  ". 

Nevertheless,  the  new  drama  triumphed  but  gradually.  Pro- 
fane mysteries  perpetuated  the  traditions  of  the  Middle  Ages ; 
the  exclusive  privilege  which  the  Guild  de  la  Passion  enjoyed 
prevented  the  formation  of  actors  capable  of  interpreting  the 
new  art,  and  the  school  of  Jodelle  was  reduced  to  having  its 
plays  performed  by  students  or  the  nobility  in  colleges  or  at 
court — it  was  purely  academic  and  learned,  whereas  the  popu- 
lar drama  of  the  Middle  Ages  held  the  stage,  and  could  alone 
be  used  as  a  vehicle  for  satire  or  polemic.  Moreover,  as  the 
Decree  of  1548  only  applied  to  Paris,  plays  of  a  sacred  char- 
acter (mysteries)  continued  to  be  composed  arid  acted  in  the 
provinces,  together  with  the  older  repertoire,  or  were  dubbed 
by  the  name  of  tragedy  and  tragi-comedy,  probably  with  the 
idea  of  balking  the  authorities.  Such  plays  are  Les  Enfants 
dans  la  Fournaise  (1561),  Le  Triomphe  de  J6sus  Christ  (1562), 
L'Holopherne  (1580),  Le  Cain  (1580),  and  La  MacchaUe  (1596), 
which  are  nothing  but  mysteries;  while  Philanire  (1560), 
L'Amour  d'un  Serviteur  (1571),  Lucille  (1576),  and  Akoubar 
(1586)  bear  close  relationship  to  the  morality. 

Thus,  while  the  old  medieval  repertoire  continued  to  be 
served  up  anew  on  the  popular  stage,  fresh  plays  on  the  same 
lines,  though  in  gradually  decreasing  numbers,  were  added 
to  it  till  quite  the  end  of  the  century. 

Finally,  the  force  of  circumstances  induced  the  Confrdrie  de 
la  Passion  to  make  a  compromise  with  the  new  school,  and 
towards  1588  they  hired  their  privilege  and  their  hall  (Hotel 
de  Bourgogne)  to  a  troop  of  comedians  who,  thanks  to  the 
reign  of  Henry  IV  and  the  return  of  peace  (1593),  were  able 
regularly  to  play  tragedy  and  comedy.  The  medieval  drama 
took  refuge  in  the  provinces,  and  languished  till  it  was  finally 
eclipsed  by  the  splendours  of  the  drama  of  the  17th  century. 

(1)  Tragedy. — The  way  for  a  reform  in  dramatic  poetry,  in 
comedy  as  well  as  tragedy,  had  been  to  some  extent  prepared 
by  plays  written  in  Latin,  the  work  of  Buchanan,  Muret,  and 
others,  and  also  by  translations  from  Sophocles  and  Euripides. 


DRAMA  71 

The  first  tragedy  in  French  representing  the  new  school  was, 
as  we  have  seen,  Jodelle's  CUop&tre  (1552).  His  example  was 
soon  followed  by  a  number  of  other  poets,  whose  tragedies 
can  be  grouped  according  to  subject  into  classical  and  religious 
plays;  while  a  third  group,  which  can  be  called  political,  owes 
its  birth  to  the  desire  of  the  Protestants  or  their  adversaries  to 
use  the  stage  for  polemical  purposes.  Such  are,  e.g.,  the  Guisade 
(1589),  Le  Guysien  (1592),  and  Chantelouve's  Coligny  (1575), 
in  which  he  celebrates  the  murderer  of  the  illustrious  admiral. 

Lastly,  the  Protestant  reformer  De  Beze,  in  his  Sacrifice 
d' Abraham,  and  Loys  Desmasures,  in  three  tragedies  on  the 
life  of  David,  attempted  a  kind  of  reconciliation  between  the 
medieval  mystery  and  classical  tragedy. 

The  chief  representatives  of  French  tragedy  based  on  classi- 
cal models  in  the  16th  century  are: — Etienne  Jodelle,  Jacques 
Grevin,  Jean  de  la  Taille,  Robert  Gamier,  Antoine  de  Mont- 
chretien. 

The  CUop&tre  of  Etienne  Jodelle  (1532-1573)  was  the  first 
French  "regular"  tragedy.  The  theme  was  borrowed  from 
Plutarch.  The  play  is  divided  into  five  acts  with  choruses. 
In  acts  ii,  iii,  and  v  the  decasyllabic  line  is  used,  but  the 
alexandrine  appears  in  acts  i  and  iv.  There  is  hardly  any 
dramatic  action,  and  the  play  is  scarcely  more  than  a  succes- 
sion of  declamations.  These  faults,  though  in  a  lesser  degree, 
are  shared  by  all  Jodelle's  successors  in  the  16th  century. 
They  are  due  to  the  influence  of  Seneca,  whose  works  were 
copied  in  preference  to  those  of  the  great  tragedians  of 
Greece,  firstly,  because  the  scholars  of  the  time  had  a  better 
knowledge  of  Latin  than  of  Greek,  and  secondly,  because  the 
perfection  and  admirable  simplicity  of  Greek  models  were 
much  more  difficult  to  imitate  than  Seneca's  declamatory  pro- 
ductions— it  was  easier  to  versify  awe-inspiring  catastrophes 
than  to  draw  real  characters  and  passions.  Seneca's  influence, 
too,  was  reinforced  by  Scaliger's  Latin  commentary  on 
Aristotle's  Poetics  (1561),  which  is  wholly  founded  on  the 
tragedies  of  the  Roman  poet. 

Lack  of  action  in  Cldopdtre .  is  not  atoned  for  by  the  style, 


72  SIXTEENTH   CENTURY— SECOND   PERIOD 

which  is  loose,  emphatic,  and  pompous.  For  the  first  time 
unity  of  time  makes  its  appearance.  The  play,  like  its  suc- 
cessors, is  oratorical  and  lyrical,  but  not  dramatic.  The 
date  of  Jodelle's  second  tragedy,  Didon  se  sacrifiant,  is  un- 
certain. It  is  still  more  devoid  of  action  than  CUopatre,  but 
superior  in  point  of  style.  The  alexandrine  measure  is  used 
throughout,  and  since  then  it  has  ranked  as  the  standard 
dramatic  line.  Whatever  the  merit  of  Jodelle's  two  plays 
may  be,  they  are  important  as  initiatory  works:  the  choice  of 
subjects,  the  small  number  of  characters,  the  simplicity  of 
action,  a  tendency  to  observe  the  unities,  mere  narrative  in 
lieu  of  dramatic  action,  and  a  sustained  effort  to  attain  le  style 
noble  all  announce  classical  tragedy. 

The  Mart  de  Cesar  (1558)  of  Jacques  Grevin  (1540  C.-1570) 
shows  some  improvement  on  his  predecessor,  especially  as 
regards  the  style,  which  is  less  obscure  and  ponderous. 

Jean  de  la  Taille  (1540  C.-1611)  was  the  first  to  treat 
biblical  subjects  in  accordance  with  the  precepts  of  the  new 
school.  He  chose  King  Saul  as  the  hero  of  a  tragedy,  "faite 
selon  I'art  et  a  la  mode  des  vieux  auteurs  tragiques:  Saul  Furieux" 
(before  1572).  In  1573  he  composed  Les  Gabeonites,  a  con- 
tinuation of  Saul.  Both  those  plays,  in  the  midst  of  much 
that  is  purely  oratorical  and  declamatory,  offer  certain  scenes 
that  are  not  without  dramatic  life. 

Gamier  and  Montchretien  represent  the  height  of  French 
tragedy  in  the  16th  century. 

Robert  Gamier  (1534-1590)  wrote  eight  plays,  of  which 
the  first  six  (Porcie,  Corndlie,  Marc  Antoine,  Hippolyte,  La 
Troade,  and  Antigone},  closely  modelled  on  Seneca,  show  little 
improvement  on  the  methods  of  his  predecessors.  After  his 
Latin  or  Greek  tragedies  he  composed  a  sacred  tragedy, 
Se'decie  or  Les  Juives  (1583),  his  masterpiece.  The  play, 
which  takes  its  name  from  the  choruses,  composed  of  Jewish 
maidens,  exhibits  the  revolt  of  the  Jewish  king  and  his 
punishment  by  Nabuchodonosor.  We  notice  in  it  a  marked 
improvement  in  action,  and  a  genuine  feeling  for  the  spirit  of 
the  Bible  has  enabled  the  poet  to  trace  real  characters  in  the 


DRAMA  73 

persons  of  Nabuchodonosor  and  Amital.  His  heroic  and 
majestic  style,  which  in  places  recalls  Corneille,  was  much 
admired  by  his  contemporaries;  in  one  of  his  sonnets  Ronsard 

exclaims : 

"  Qud  son  masle  et  hardy  !  quelle  bouche  hdro'ique 
Et  quel  supcrbe  vers  entens-je  icy  sonner?" 

while  the  lyrical  utterances  in  the  plaintive  songs  of  the 
chorus  prove  that  Gamier  was  assuredly  a  poet  if  not  a 
dramatist.  Unity  of  time  is  observed  in  Garnier's  plays,  but 
unity  of  place  is  neglected. 

The  year  before  Les  Juives  he  wrote  Bradamente,  an  example 
of  the  new  form  of  tragi-comedy,  or  tragedy  with  a  happy 
ending.  The  subject  is  romantic,  and  borrowed  from  cantos 
44-46  of  Ariosto's  Orlando  Furioso.  Riidiger,  after  surmounting 
endless  dangers,  wins  his  love,  Bradamente,  sister  of  the  four 
sons  of  Hemon.  Both  place  and  time  are  freely  treated.  The 
dialogue  is  free  from  sententious  maxims;  comic  and  tragic 
scenes  are  interwoven,  and  no  choruses  appear. 

Of  the  six  tragedies  left  by  Montchretien  (  +  1621),  by  far 
the  best  is  L'ficossaise  ou  Le  Ddsastre,  in  which  he  depicts  the 
sad  fate  of  Mary  Queen  of  Scots.  As  far  as  dramatic  action 
is  concerned,  L'Ecossaise  is  a  retrograde  step  on  Gamier.  The 
first  two  acts  are  filled  with  sententious  political  tirades,  in 
which  Elizabeth  and  her  councillors  debate  as  to  whether 
Mary  shall  die  or  not;  in  acts  iii  and  iv  the  prayers  and 
lamentations  of  the  unhappy  queen  leave  room  for  nothing 
else,  while  the  last  act  is  devoted  to  a  minute  account  of  her 
execution.  The  two  rivals  do  not  even  meet.  The  charm  of 
the  play  lies  in  the  beautiful  lyrical  passages,  superior  even 
to  those  in  Gamier,  the  elegiac  softness  of  which  has  won 
for  Montchretien  the  name  of  the  Racine  of  the  16th  century. 
His  tragedies  connect  the  16th  century  with  the  classical 
school  of  the  17th  century. 

(2)  Comedy  in  the  16th  century,  in  spite  of  translations  and 
imitations  from  Aristophanes,  Plautus,  and  Terence,  is  neither 
Greek  nor  Latin.  It  is  derived  mainly  from  the  medieval  farce 
and  Italian  comedy. 


74  SIXTEENTH   CENTURY — SECOND   PERIOD 

As  in  tragedy,  Jodelle  was  the  first  to  open  the  way,  his 
Eugene  appearing  in  1552.  In  spite  of  the  fact  that  it  is 
called  a  comedy,  and  of  its  polemical  prologue,  it  is  little  more 
than  an  old  farce  decked  out  in  more  regular  and  rhetorical 
language. 

The  year  after,  Grevin  wrote  La  Maubertine  (the  woman 
from  the  Place  Maubert)  or  La  Trdsorikre,  in  which  Jodelle's 
influence  is  obvious;  this  was  followed  by  Les  Esbahis,  freely 
modelled  on  a  translation  from  the  Italian  of  Ch.  Etienne. 
In  each  of  these  three  plays  the  octosyllabic  line  is  used,  as  in 
the  medieval  farce. 

In  imitation  of  his  Italian  models  Jean  de  la  Taille  em- 
ploys prose  for  the  first  time  in  the  Corrivaux  (1576).  Odet  de 
Turnebe  (1553-1581)  also  used  prose  in  Les  Contents  (1584). 

The  most  remarkable  name  in  the  history  of  16th-century 
comedy  is  that  of  Larivey  (1540  C.-1615  c.).  He  was  of  Italian 
origin,  but  gallicized  his  name  (il  Giunto  =  V arrive').  He 
adapted  from  the  works  of  contemporary  Italian  dramatists 
with  great  tact  and  discretion.  To  suit  the  requirements  of 
French  readers  he  changed  the  locality  of  the  scenes,  the 
names  of  the  characters,  suppressed  or  added  passages  and 
parts  with  so  much  judgment  that  his  translations  are  nearly 
always  superior  to  the  originals.  But  his  chief  title  to  fame 
consists  in  his  style,  teeming  with  popular  and  proverbial 
expressions,  which  did  so  much  to  advance  the  art  of  dia- 
logue. Of  the  dozen  plays  due  to  the  pen  of  Larivey  nine 
have  come  down  to  us,  of  which  the  best  by  far  is  Les  Espiits 
(the  Ghosts),  imitated  from  the  Aridosio  of  Lorenzino  de 
Medici. 

In  general  the  comedy  of  the  16th  century  in  its  intrigue 
bears  a  close  similarity  to  the  imbroglio  of  Italian  comedy ;  its 
types  of  character  are  purely  conventional  (merchants,  panders, 
ruffians,  bullies,  parasites,  and  bourgeois),  while  the  language 
is  even  more  grossly  indecent  than  that  of  medieval  farce. 


75 


CHAPTER  III 
PROSE 

Among  prose-translators  we  find  such  well-known  names  as 
Eonsard,  Du  Bellay,  Belleau,  Baif,  Du  Vair,  &c.,  but  none 
of  these  can  compare  with  Jacques  Amyot  of  Melun  (1513- 
1573),  professor  of  Greek  and  Latin  at  the  University  of 
Bourges,  and  afterwards  tutor  to  the  sons  of  Henry  II,  and 
finally  Bishop  of  Auxerre.  His  first  translation,  TMagkne  et 
CharicUe,  appeared  in  1547,  and  was  destined  to  have  great 
influence  on  the  development  of  the  French  novel.  In  1559 
followed  Les  Amours  Pastorales  de  Daphnis  et  Chlod,  from  Longus; 
and  the  same  year  he  completed  for  his  princely  pupils  the 
translation  of  Plutarch,  which  he  had  previously  begun  at  the 
request  of  Francis  I.  To  Henry  II  he  dedicated  the  trans- 
lation of  the  Vies  des  Homines  Illustres  de  Plutarque,  and  to 
Charles  IX  the  CEuvres  Morales  (1572). 

Amyot's  translations  from  Plutarch  had  an  enormous  suc- 
cess, opening  up  a  source  of  moral  and  historical  culture  for 
which  his  fellow-countrymen  had  long  thirsted:  "Plutarch", 
says  Montaigne,  "is  my  favourite  book  since  it  has  become 
French  ",  and  he  always  quotes  according  to  Amyot's  version ; 
in  another  passage  of  his  Essays  (ii.  4)  he  adds:  "Nous  autres 
ignorants  (du  Grec)  estions  perdus,  si  ce  lime,  ne  nous  eust  relevd  du 
bourbier:  sa  mercy  (thanks  to  it),  nous  osons  a  cett'  heure  et  parler 
et  escrire;  les  dames  en  regentent  (teach)  les  maistres  d'eschok;  c'est 
noire  breviaire".  Montaigne's  words  show  the  importance  of 
the  Plutarch  translations  in  helping  to  spread  the  knowledge 
of  antiquity  and  as  a  book  for  ladies.  From  the  time  of 
Amyot's  translation  Plutarch  is  known  in  French  literature 
as  Amyot.  But  such  success  was  impossible  without  excel- 
lence in  the  execution;  Amyot  gives  the  sum  of  Plutarch's 
ideas,  and  penetrated  so  deeply  into  the  Greek  author's 
thought  that  he  may  be  said  to  have  made  it  his  own,  in  fact  he 
not  unfrequently  surpasses  the  original  in  clearness  and  pre- 
cision. There  may  be  mistranslations  in  his  version,  but  he  is 


76  SIXTEENTH   CENTURY— SECOND   PERIOD 

no  philologist,  he  only  wished  the  ideas  and  life  of  the  ancient 
world  to  become  the  possession  of  all  French  readers,  and  to 
enrich  the  literature  of  his  country, 

"  Afin  fjue  sans  danger, 
Le  Franqais  ftlt  vainqucur  du  savoir  Stranger  ", 

as  Ronsard  says.  Amyot  went  out  to  conquer  fresh  fields, 
but  conquistadors  are  apt  to  be  violent,  and  he  did  not  scruple 
to  gallicize  the  antique  conditions  of  life  to  suit  his  readers, 
translating  vestal  maidens  by  religieuses,  and  providing  Alex- 
ander the  Great  with  huissiers  &  verge  and  gentilshommes  de  la 
chambre.  Local  colour,  however,  is  after  all  only  a  poetical 
ornament,  and  this  slight  blemish  is  amply  atoned  for  by  the 
fact  that  Amyot,  anticipating  Montaigne,  helped  to  found 
French  literature  on  a  moral  and  psychological  basis. 

Beginning  with  the  reign  of  Henry  II  (1548)  memoirs  and 
biographies  abound.  We  shall  proceed  to  discuss  the  most 
important. 

For  fifty-five  years  Blaise  de  Monluc  (1502-1577)  held  a 
command  in  the  army  of  the  king — of  this  his  scars  remind 
him,  which  cover  his  whole  body  with  the  exception  of  his 
right  arm.  Finally  a  gun-shot  tore  off  half  his  face,  and  com- 
pelled him  to  wear  a  mask.  Retiring  from  the  service  in 
1574  as  Marshal  of  France,  he  decided  "  d  employer  le  temps  qui 
me  reste  h  descrire  les  combatz  auxquels  je  me  suis  trouvd  pendant 
dnquante  et  deux  arts  que  fai  command^,  m'asseurant  que  les 
capitaines  qui  liront  ma  vie,  y  verront  des  choses  desquelles  Us  se 
pourront  aider,  se  trouvans  en  semblables  occasions,  et  desquelles  Us 
pourront  aussi  faire  profit  et  acquerir  honneur  et  reputation  ".  The 
outcome  of  this  resolution  were  the  Commentaires  (printed  in 
1592),  which  Henry  TV  is  said  to  have  called  the  "soldier's 
Bible". 

Monluc  was  a  faithful  and  brave  servant  of  his  master,  his 
watchword  being  to  gain  honour  in  the  service  of  the  king. 
He  laments  the  victims  of  war,  and  feels  that  their  curses  are 
weighing  down  upon  him  .  .  „  but  the  king  commanded.  He 
could  unfortunately,  he  says,  only  enforce  obedience  by  means 


PROSE.  77 

of  cannon.  He  would  have  done  still  more  harm  to  the 
Huguenots  if  he  had  been  able,  for  they  are  the  king's 
enemies;  yet  he  is  no  fanatical  Catholic,  and  would  have  no 
objection  to  becoming  a  Huguenot  "if  the  king  first  of  all 
changed  his  faith  " — his  religion,  too,  is  "  au  service  du  roi ". 

Monluc's  directness  of  speech,  and  the  raw  soldierly  humour 
of  the  narrative,  enlivens  the  Commentaires  with  what  has  been 
described  as  the  poetry  of  war. 

The  "r&o&rendf&re  en  Dieu",  as  Brantome  (1540-1614),  the 
secular  possessor  of  ecclesiastical  benefices,  styled  himself,  was 
also  a  soldier  like  Monluc,  but  more  of  a  courtier.  He  was  as 
fickle  and  unsteady  as  Monluc  was  true  and  constant;  he  was, 
he  tells  us  himself,  "  du  naturel  des  tabourineurs  (drum-players), 
qui  aiment  mieux  la  maison  d'autrui  que  la  leur ",  a  condotliere, 
who  roamed  all  over  the  East,  and  crossed  over  to  Scotland  on 
the  same  ship  as  Mary  Queen  of  Scots  when  she  left  France 
for  the  last  time.  In  1584  a  fall  from  a  horse  maimed  him  for 
life,  and,  confining  him  to  his  estates,  prompted  him  to  write 
his  experiences — feats  of  war,  love  stories,  scandals,  duels,  &c. 

Brantome's  works,  which  did  not  appear  till  1668,  include — 

(a)  Vies  des  Homines  Illustres  et  des  Grands  Capitaines  Etr angers; 

(b)  Vies  des  Hommes  Illustres  et  des  Grands  Capitaines  Francais; 

(c)  Vies  des  Dames  Illustres,  des  Dames   Gallantes;    and   (d) 
Anecdotes  touchant  les  Duels. 

His  style  is  pleasant  and  chatty,  but  his  vision  is  neither 
wide  nor  profound;  he  only  feels  interest  for  what  clatters, 
shines,  or  amuses,  and  shows  a  striking  incapacity  for  dis- 
tinguishing between  vice  and  virtue:  in  his  eyes  the  court  of 
Charles  IX  "est  une  ecole de  toute honnetete".  The  fact  that  the 
whole  of  1 6th-century  society  parades  before  us  in  his  works 
gives  them  a  historical  importance  far  in  excess  of  their 
mediocre  literary  value,  which  is  only  occasionally  redeemed 
by  a  fine  portrait  like  that  of  Mary  of  Scots,  of  De  1'Hopital, 
or  of  Marguerite  de  Valois. 

Here,  as  in  other  branches  of  literature,  the  Protestants  did 
not  lag  behind.  The  chief  literary  contributions  of  the  Hugue- 
not leader  Francois  de  la  Noue  (1531-1591)  are  the  Discours 


78  SIXTEENTH   CENTURY— SECOND   PERIOD 

Politiques  d  Militoifes  (1587),  written  during  his  captivity  in 
the  castle  of  Limburg.  These  twenty-five  discourses  treat 
in  almost  equal  proportion  of  political,  moral,  and  military 
matters.  The  military  discourses  describe  the  wars  of  the 
years  1562-1570,  those  of  Conde"  and  Coligny,  which  the 
author  relates  with  the  greatest  modesty  and  impartiality. 

La  Noue's  Discours  were  one  of  the  sources  used  by  De  Thou 
(1553-1615)  in  the  great  Historia,  mei  Temporis,  an  important 
work  written  in  Latin.  La  Noue  was  a  man  of  fervent  belief, 
but  tolerant,  a  true  and  good  man.  The  opponents  whom 
he  combated  with  sword  or  pen,  the  wild  Monluc  and  the 
humanist  Montaigne,  are  unanimous  in  their  praise  of  his 
character  and  conduct. 

He  was  also  a  moralist,  and  wrote  a  Discours  contre  les  Amadis, 
a  protest  against  the  excessive  vogue  of  these  romances,  and 
also  against  the  imitation  of  Spanish  manners. 

Among  the  political  writers  of  the  16th  century,  the  great- 
est and  most  impartial  is  Jean  Bodin  (1529-1596),  the  author 
of  the  Republique.  It  is  a  book  of  political  philosophy,  a  sub- 
ject whose  "holy  mysteries"  have  been  profaned  by  writers 
like  Machiavelli  and  other  "  courtiers  des  tyrans  ".  Bodin  chose 
his  title  obviously  in  direct  opposition  to  that  of  Machiavelli's 
Prince.  The  work,  written  in  a  clear  and  concise  style,  sets  up 
the  conditions  of  a  form  of  government  equally  distant  from 
the  two  poles  of  anarchy  and  tyranny.  Bodin  comes  to  the 
conclusion  that  "  une  monarchic  royale  et  Ugitime  ",  in  which  he 
sees  a  picture  of  the  family,  can  alone  fulfil  these  conditions. 
He  had  in  his  mind  the  material  and  moral  welfare  of  the 
people;  was  no  advocate  of  tyranny,  condemned  slavery,  and 
held  that  religious  persecution  can  only  lead  to  a  dissolution 
of  religious  belief.  Like  Montesquieu  in  the  18th  century, 
he  devotes  attention  to  the  adaptation  of  government  to  the 
varied  conditions  of  race  and  climate. 

Etienne  de  la  Boetie  (1530-1563),  the  friend  of  Montaigne, 
under  the  influence  of  the  current  of  revolutionary  ideas  which 
developed  during  the  first  part  of  the  century  composed  the 
Discours  de  la  Servitude  Volontaire,  or  the  Contr'un,  a  youthful 


PROSE  79 

and  ardent  attack  on  tyranny.  After  La  Beetle's  death, 
Montaigne  attempted  to  protect  the  memory  of  his  friend, 
in  a  well-known  passage  of  the  Essays,  as  a  good  and  peace- 
loving  citizen,  although  he  could  not  help  confessing  that  La 
Boetie  "eust  mieux  aymt  estre  nay  a  Venise  qu'a  Sarlat",  thereby 
implying  that  he  was  a  republican  at  heart. 

Francois  Hotman  (1524-1590),  the  eminent  Protestant 
jurist,  is  famous  for  his  political  treatise,  the  Franco-Gallia 
(1573,  translated  1574),  in  which  he  represents  the  institutions 
that  the  Huguenot  party  demand  as  being  those  which  for  a 
long  time  governed  France,  and  alone  can  help  her  to  retrieve 
her  prosperity.  According  to  Hotman  these  ideal  institutions 
can  be  found  in  the  history  of  Gaul  and  of  the  early  Prankish 
monarchy:  in  Caesar's  time  the  peoples  of  Gaul  formed  a 
federation  of  free  states,  at  the  head  of  which  was  a  general 
assembly  of  deputies  elected  by  the  whole  of  the  country. 
After  the  Roman  conquest  and  the  conquest  of  Gaul  by  the 
Franks,  this  federation  was  replaced  by  an  elective  monarchy, 
beginning  with  Childeric,  in  which  the  king  could  be  deposed 
by  the  States-General  composed  of  the  nobles,  the  magistracy, 
the  merchants,  and  artisans.  The  clergy  formed  no  order  and 
exercised  no  power.  The  sensation  caused  by  the  Franco- 
Gallia  has  been  compared  to  that  produced  by  the  Contrat 
Social  in  the  18th  century. 

Other  political  writers  are  Michel  de  1'Hopital  (1504-1573),  the 
advocate  of  tolerance,  in  the  But  de  la  Guerre  et  de  la  Paix,  addressed 
to  Charles  IX. 

Also  Henri  Etienne  and  D' Aubigne,  both  noticed  elsewhere. 

Here  belongs  likewise  the  famous  pamphlet,  La  Satire 
Menippee  (published  in  1594),  so  called  after  the  Satira  Men- 
ippea  of  the  Roman  satiric  poet  Varro,  who  in  his  turn  h?d 
taken  as  his  model  the  Greek  Menippus,  the  pupil  of  Diogenes. 
The  Satire  M6nipp6e  is  a  striking  answer  to  the  intrigues  of  the 
fanatical  League  against  Henry  IV  of  Navarre,  the  lawful  heir 
to  the  throne  of  France,  and  at  the  same  time  a  literary 
annihilation  of  all  hostile  pamphleteers.  The  authors  of  the 
Mdnippde,  of  whom  there  were  half  a  dozen,  were  not  Hugue- 


80  SIXTEENTH   CENTURY — SECOND   PERIOD 

nots,  but  peace-loving  Catholics,  who  feared  that  in  the  end 
civil  war  would  ruin  France  and  deliver  her  up  to  Spain;  but 
as  the  partisans  of  the  League  opposed  Henry  IV  chiefly 
because  he  belonged  then  to  the  Reformed  Church,  they  were 
compelled  to  turn  their  satire  and  irony  against  the  Pope  and 
his  party.  The  political  situation  in  France  just  before  the 
birth  of  this  famous  satiric  pamphlet  was  as  folloAvs:  Henry 
III  had  been  murdered  by  the  fanatical  monk  Clement;  Henry 
of  Navarre  (Henry  IV )  and  the  Due  de  Guise  were  competitors 
for  the  succession,  which  had  been  refused  to  Henry  IV  as 
professing  the  Protestant  faith.  Philip  II  of  Spain  was  also 
scheming  to  buy  the  French  crown  for  his  daughter,  the  Infanta 
of  Spain,  and  was  backed  up  by  the  Pope.  A  convocation  of 
the  fitats  Gdne'raux  remained  without  any  result.  It  is  the 
proceedings  of  this  assembly  that  the  authors  of  the  Mfaiippde 
took  as  the  object  of  their  satire. 

The  first  part  consists  of  a  prologue  by  Pierre  Leroy,  canon 
of  Rouen,  introducing  two  quacks,  one  of  Spain,  the  other  of 
Lorraine  (the  Guises  were  of  Lorraine),  who  vaunt  the  virtues 
of  the  Catholicon  of  Spain,  a  divine  electuary  for  which  all  is 
possible.  The  following  lines  will  give  an  idea  of  the  miracles 
which  it  can  at  need  accomplish.  There  are  a  score  such 
miracles.  We  quote  numbers  three  and  sixteen,  as  being  brief. 

III.  "  Qu'un  Roy  casannier  (Philip  II)  s'armtse  a  affiiur  (refine) 
ceste  drogue  en  son  Escurial,  qu'il  escrire  un  mot  en  Flandres  au 
pere  Ignace,  cachete"  de  Catholicon,  il  luy  trourera  homme,  leqiid 
(salva  conscientia)  assassinera  son  ennemy  (Prince  of  Orange),  qu'il 
n'avoit  pen  (pu)  vaincre  par  armes  en  vingt  ans." 

XVI.  "  Voulez-vous  bientost  estre  Cardinal?  Frottez  une  des 
comes  de  wstre  bonnet  de  Higuiero  ( =  fig-tree,  another  expression 
for  Catholicon) ;  il  diviendra  rouge,  et  serez  fait  Cardinal,  fussiez- 
wus  le  plus  incestueux  et  ambitieux  Primat  du  monde." 

Then  follows  the  opening  of  the  States-General  and  the 
speeches  begin,  speeches  in  which  each  of  the  speakers  of 
the  League,  the  Lieutenant,  the  Legate,  Cardinal  de  Pelv6, 
Monsieur  de  Lyon,  the  Rector  Roze,  and  others,  expose  their 


PROSE  81 

ambitions,  greeds,  egoism,  and  hypocrisy.  Finally,  Monsieur 
d'Aubray,  the  representative  of  the  bourgeois  class,  closes  the 
sitting  with  a  long  speech  in  which  he  demands  order,  toler- 
ation, the  lawful  king,  and  at  the  same  time  unmasks  the 
dark  schemes  of  the  nobility  and  their  foreign  allies. 

Although  the  civil  war  was  not  quelled  till  1598,  what  the 
Menippde  demands  was  already  an  accomplished  fact  when  that 
pamphlet  appeared  in  1594,  but  at  the  same  time  it  did  a 
great  deal  to  strengthen  Henry  IVs  newly-acquired  position 
and  authority. 

The  authors  apart  from  Leroy  were  Nicolas  Rapin,  a  French 
and  Latin  poet,  who  contributed  to  the  speeches  and  epigrams 
interspersed  in  the  body  of  the  work;  Jean  Passerat,  who 
wrote  part  of  the  French  and  Latin  epigrams ;  Florent  Chretien, 
a  speech  in  macaronic  Latin ;  Pierre  Pithou,  the  author  of  the 
Harangue  de  M.  d'Aubray,  and  Gilles  Durant  of  certain  verses. 

During  this  period  a  great  number  of  treatises  on  language 
and  grammar  appeared,  either  proposing  reforms,  combating 
foreign  influence,  or  setting  forth  new  ideas. 

The  disorder  reigning  in  the  French  language  at  this  period, 
and  more  especially  in  spelling,  which  by  false  etymology  was 
made  to  resemble  Latin  more  closely  by  the  introduction  of 
superfluous  letters,1  prompted  Louis  Meigret  of  Lyons  to  pub- 
lish a  Trett&  de  la  Grammere  fransoese  (1550),  in  which  he  advo- 
cates phonetic  spelling,  regardless  of  supposed  etymological 
derivation,  that  "grande  superstition",  as  he  calls  it.  Although 
Meigret  found  a  few  ardent  supporters,  such  as  Ramus,  Baif 
was  the  only  one  of  the  important  writers  of  the  16th  century 
to  follow  his  recommendation.  Eonsard  and  Du  Bellay  sym- 
pathized, but  preferred  to  follow  tradition,  while  Pasquier, 
Montaigne,  and  others,  could  see  no  good  in  such  an  innovation. 
This  lack  of  unanimity,  and  also  the  opposition  of  publishers, 
made  success  impossible. 

Among  philologists  three  names  deserve  special  mention: 
H.  Etienne,  Pasquier,  and  Fauchet.  Resistance  to  the  italian- 

1  Instead  of  tcrire,  sais,  fait,  recevoir,  &c.,  they  wrote  escribre,  sfais,  faict, 
recepvoir,  &c. 

(M643)  V 


82  SIXTEENTH   CENTURY—  SECOND   PERIOD 

izing  of  the  language  called  forth  the  linguistic  works  of 
Henri  Etienne  (1531-1598). 

Italian  elements  had  been  introduced  wholesale  during  the 
first  half  of  the  16th  century.  The  French  expeditions  to 
Italy  (1483-1547);  the  migration  of  Italian  architects,  actors, 
painters,  &c.,  and  the  influence  of  Catherine  of  Medici,  the 
wife  of  Henry  II,  were  all  responsible  for  this  foreign  mania, 
so  much  affected  by  the  court.  The  innovations  were  chiefly 
terms  referring  to  court  life  (altesse,  grandesse,  disgrdce,  carrosse, 
carnaval,  courtisan,  escorte,  &c.);  terms  of  art  and  amusements 
(baldaquin,  fresque,  feston,  concert,  sonnet,  &c.);  or  of  war  (soldat, 
cavalerie,  Jantassin,  escadron,  &c.);  but  courtiers  did  not  stop 
there,  and  to  be  in  fashion  made  it  a  point  to  introduce  as 
many  Italian  words  as  possible  into  their  conversation. 

Henri  Etienne  determined  to  check  this  abuse.  In  1565 
he  published  the  TraiU  de  la  ConformiU  du  Francois  avec  le  Grec, 
which,  while  admitting  in  the  main  that  French  is  derived 
from  Latin,  shows  that  it  stands  in  close  spiritual  relationship 
to  Greek,  and  is  thus  deserving  of  equal  consideration,  and 
from  that  very  fact  superior  to  other  modern  languages,  and 
especially  Italian,  that  being  the  point  that  he  really  wants  to 
bring  home.  Etienne's  ideas  in  this  respect  are  identical  with 
those  of  the  PUiade. 

In  the  Prdcellence  de  la  Langue  Fran$oise  (1579)  he  affirms 
the  inferiority  of  Italian  once  more,  and  in  the  Nouveaux 
Dialogues  du  Langage  Francois  Italianise  (published  anonymously 
at  Geneva  in  1578)  he  derides  the  "  gdte-Jranfais"  in  the  person 
of  Philausone,  "gentilhomme  Cburtisanopolitois",  who  in  the  pre- 
face addresses  his  readers  in  the  following  terms : — "  Messieurs, 
U  n'y  a  pas  longtemps  qu'ayant  quelque  martel  en  tete  (ce  qui 
m'advient  souvent  pendant  que  je  fais  ma  stanse  en  la  cour)  et  a 
cause  de  ce  etant  sorti  aprh  le  past  pour  oiler  un  peu  spaceger,  je 
trouvai  par  la  strade  un  mien  ami,  nomine1  Celtophile  ". 

A  long  dialogue  of  over  600  pages  takes  place  between 
Philausone  and  his  opponent  Celtophile,  in  which  Italian 
imitation,  not  only  in  language  but  in  manner,  is  severely 
criticised. 


PROSE  83 

Etienne  also  hates  the  Italians  as  a  Protestant,  and  thinks 
that  the  only  neologisms  which  Italy  can  furnish  are  names 
for  things  which  France  did  not  know  till  she  came  into  con- 
tact with  her,  such  as  poltronnerie,  charlatan,  intriguant,  &c. 
Party  feeling  comes  out  strongly  in  his  Apologie  pour  Htrodote 
(1566),  which,  under  the  pretence  of  establishing  the  veracity 
of  the  Greek  historian  by  comparing  his  tales  to  the  events 
of  the  civil  war,  is  really  a  covert  attack  on  the  Catholics. 

Claude  Fauchet  (1530-1601)  is  the  creator  of  political  his- 
tory and  of  the  history  of  literature.  The  Antiquitez  Gauloises 
et  Francoises  (1579-1601)  are  remarkable  for  their  great  erudi- 
tion and  for  their  originality.  They  consist  of  two  books,  of 
which  the  first  is  devoted  to  the  history  of  the  Gauls  and  to 
that  of  the  Franks  down  to  751,  and  the  second  to  the  history 
of  Pepin  and  his  successors  from  751  to  840.  The  Recueil 
de  I'Origine  de  la  Langue  et  Podsie  Framboise,  by  the  same  author, 
establishes  for  the  first  time  the  Latin  origin  of  French: 
"  La  longue  seigneurie  que  les  Remains  eurent  en  ce  pais,  y  planta 
leur  langue".  Fauchet  is  wrong,  however,  in  assuming  that 
French  is  the  outcome  of  a  mixture  of  Gallic  and  Latin,  but 
he  should  not  be  measured  according  to  present-day  standards; 
by  the  mere  fact  of  proclaiming  that  French  had  nothing  in 
common  with  Greek  he  was  far  in  advance  of  his  contem- 
poraries. The  second  part  of  the  Recue.il  is  taken  up  with 
critical  notices  of  127  old  French  poets  and  quotations  from 
their  works. 

Unfortunately  the  learned  and  original  researches  of  Claude 
Fauchet  passed  almost  unnoticed,  a  fate  which  also  befell  the 
works  of  iStienne  Pasquier  (1529-1615),  the  author  of  the 
Recherches  de  la  France  (begun  in  1560),  dealing  in  ten  volumes 
with  the  political,  literary,  and  administrative  history  of  the 
country. 

In  Book  I  Pasquier  gives  a  picture  of  the  Gauls  and  Franks,  whose 
supposed  Trojan  origin  he  rejects,  as  had  done  Fauchet. 

In  Book  II  he  studies  the  social  organization  of  the  early  Gauls. 
In  Book  III  the  relations  of  the  court  of  Rome  with  the  state. 
In  Book  IV  questions  referring  to  ancient  legislation. 


84  SIXTEENTH   CENTURY — SECOND  PERIOD 

Books  V  and  VI  discuss  certain  points  in  French  history:  the  trial 
of  Jeanne  d'Arc,  the  revolt  of  the  Connetable  de  Bourbon,  &c. 

Books  VII  and  VIII  contain  studies  on  the  origin  of  the  language, 
the  literary  history  of  the  16th  century,  and  on  versification. 

Book  IX  treats  of  French  universities,  especially  of  that  of  Paris. 

Book  X  describes  the  rivalry  between  Fr&legonde  and  Brunehaut. 

Books  VII  and  VIII  are  by  far  the  most  important  from 
a  modern  point  of  view,  and  still  indispensable  to  the  student 
of  16th-century  literature.  Pasquier's  productions  are  almost 
equal  to  those  of  Fauchet  scientifically,  and  far  superior  from 
a  literary  point  of  view. 

Among  the  moralists  of  the  16th  century  none  is  so  cele- 
brated as  Michel  de  Montaigne,  the  author  of  the  Essays, 
than  which  few  books  have  exercised  a  greater  and  more 
lasting  influence  on  the  writings  and  thought  of  the  world. 
Montaigne  was  a  favourite  with  Bacon,  and  especially  with 
Shakespeare,  who  made  numerous  borrowings  from  the  Essays. 

Michel  Eyquem,  Seigneur  de  Montaigne,  was  born  in  1533  at  the 
Chateau  de  Montaigne,  in  Perigord.  His  grandfather  was  a  merchant 
of  Bordeaux.  His  father,  after  serving  in  the  army  for  some  time, 
became  mayor  of  Bordeaux.  Montaigne  himself  tells  us  much  of  his 
youth  and  the  original  ideas  of  his  father  on  education:  how  he  had 
him  put  out  to  nurse  in  one  of  the  villages  of  his  estate,  roused  him 
from  sleep  to  the  sound  of  music,  and  made  him  learn  Latin  exclusively 
till  the  age  of  six.  Montaigne's  mother  was  Antoinette  de  Loupes 
(Lopez),  of  a  Jewish  family  which  had  emigrated  from  Spain.  From 
six  to  fourteen  (1539-1546)  young  Montaigne  was  a  pupil  of  the  College 
de  Guyenne,  the  best  school  in  France,  the  head  of  which  was  the 
famous  scholar  Andre  de  Govea.  He  tells  us  that  his  masters  there 
were  Buchanan  and  Muret,  who  wrote  Latin  plays  for  the  scholars,  and 
how  he  took  part  in  them.  Neither  does  he  hide  the  fact  that  he  was 
careless,  lazy,  and  read  on  the  whole  merely  as  his  fancy  dictated. 

From  1546-1554  his  course  is  doubtful,  but  he  probably  studied  law 
at  Bordeaux  or  Toulouse.  At  the  age  of  twenty-one  he  became  a 
member  of  the  Cour  des  Aides  at  Pe'rigueux,  and  three  years  later  he  was 
appointed  Counsellor  of  Parliament  at  Bordeaux.  There  ttienne  de  la 
Boetie  was  his  fellow-member,  and  a  close  friendship  sprang  up  between 
them,  which  lasted  till  La  Boetie's  early  death  in  1563. 

At  thirty-three  Montaigne  married  Frangoise  de  la  Chassaigne,  the 
daughter  of  a  Counsellor  of  the  Parliament  of  Bordeaux,  and  in  1568, 
on  the  death  of  his  father,  he  became  the  head  of  the  family.  The  year 


PROSE  85 

after  he  translated  the  Theologia  Naturalis  of  the  Spaniard  Raymond 
de  Sebond,  and  in  1571  he  resigned  his  post  and  retired  to  his  Chateau 
de  Montaigne.  In  1572  he  commenced  to  write  essays,  and  published 
two  books  in  1580.  From  June  to  November  of  that  year  we  find  him 
travelling  in  Switzerland,  South  Germany,  Tyrol,  and  Italy;  and  while 
near  Lucca  he  was  elected  mayor  of  Bordeaux,  and  though  he  at  first 
refused  the  dignity,  he  gave  way  on  receiving  a  letter  from  Henry  III 
commanding  him  to  accept.  On  the  whole,  he  seems  to  have  filled  the 
duties  of  the  post  with  great  tact,  in  spite  of  a  somewhat  hurried  depar- 
ture just  at  the  time  when  the  plague  broke  out  with  renewed  vigour. 
In  1588  Montaigne  went  to  Paris  to  arrange  for  the  publication  of  the 
Essays,  and  there  made  the  acquaintance  of  Mile  de  Gournay,  his 
adopted  daughter.  He  died  in  1592,  leaving  to  his  wife  and  Mile  de 
Gournay  the  task  of  issuing  the  definitive  edition  of  his  essays  which 
appeared  in  1595. 

Montaigne's  Essays  consist  of  three  books,  on  the  most 
varied  subjects,  whose  titles  frequently  afford  no  clue  what- 
soever to  their  contents,  and  are  only  mere  pegs  to  hang  ideas 
upon;1  he  chatters  on  in  a  disconnected  way  on  a  thousand 
topics,  and  often  completely  loses  sight  of  his  original  theme, 
yet  he  does  so  with  an  object  in  view;  he  avoids  all  systematic 
exposition  for  fear  of  appearing  pedantic. 

The  Essays  are  the  effort  of  a  man  to  make  the  knowledge 
of  himself  the  basis  of  a  knowledge  of  the  human  race,  and  to 
deduce  a  rule  of  conduct  from  this  knowledge.  If  we  bear 
this  in  mind  we  shall  not  blame  Montaigne  for  continually 
talking  about  himself.  He  takes  himself  as  a  representative 
of  "la  moyenne  humaniU",  and  by  exposing  himself  to  view 
he  exposes  all  of  us,  because  a  single  person  can,  as  it  were, 
resume  the  species,  and,  according  to  Montaigne,  "porter  la 
forme  entiere  de  I'humaine  condition".  This  he  did  gradually 
at  first,  but  in  time  he  got  over  any  timidity  he  may  have  felt 
of  continually  speaking  of  himself:  "  J'ose  non  settlement  parler 
de  moi,  mais  parler  seulement  de  moi ". 

In  other  words,  Montaigne  is  the  first  French  writer  who 
made  moral  and  psychological  observation  the  true  basis  of 
literature. 

1  We  quote  a  few  at  hap-hazard :  A  Trick  of  certain  A  mbassadors,  Of 
Cannibals,  Of  Smells  and  Odours,  Of  Books,  Of  Thumbs,  A  Custom  of  the 
Isle  of  Cea,  How  a  Man  should  not  Pretend  to  be  Sick,  &c. 


86  SIXTEENTH   CENTURY — SECOND    PERIOD 

The  foundation  and  essence  of  Montaigne's  ideas  are  con- 
tained in  the  ironical  Apologie  de  Raymond  Sebond,  a  15th- 
century  professor  of  Toulouse,  whose  Theologia  Naturalis  Mon- 
taigne had  translated  in  1569.  In  this  famous  essay,  the 
twelfth  chapter  of  the  second  book,  he  wrote  an  eloquent 
tirade  against  the  worth  of  human  understanding  and  reason, 
in  so  far  as  metaphysical  and  scientific  knowledge  is  concerned. 

It  cannot  be  denied  that  our  natural  reason  gives  us  a  kind 
of  animal  knowledge  ("  brute  connaissance  ")  of  the  existence  of 
God  (Deism),  but  no  more. 

Of  scientific  knowledge,  of  the  "dneries  de  I'humaine  sapi- 
ence ",  he  speaks  with  sovereign  disdain.  Lately,  he  says, 
Copernicus  has  proved  that  the  earth  moves,  although  we  had 
been  taught  for  thousands  of  years  that  it  is  the  sun  that 
does  so — "who  knows  if  in  another  thousand  years  a  third 
doctrine  will  not  be  established,  and  overthrow  the  two 
others  ?  What  else  shall  we  have  to  learn  by  that  fact  except 
that  it  is  indifferent  to  us  who  is  right?"  Montaigne  even 
deprecates  the  value  of  scientific  endeavour  and  research,  and 
denies  that  knowledge  increases  either  our  happiness  or  use- 
fulness in  this  life.  We  do  not  know  that  the  two  most  learned 
men-  of  antiquity,  Aristotle  and  Varro,  had  "aucune  parti- 
culiere  excellence  en  leur  vie".  The  sum  of  this  excellence  is 
not  to  be  found  among  the  learned,  but  among  the  ignorant 
and  lowly  ("ignorance  abdcddaire"),  or  among  those  men  who  are 
really  wise,  who  after  long  striving  see  that  they  know  nothing 
and  cannot  know  anything  ("  I'ignorance  gui  se  sail,  qui  sejuge"). 
Those  two  classes,  in  their  modesty,  are  good  citizens  and 
good  Christians,  but  the  men  of  the  third  class,  the  so-called 
cultured  men,  are  the  bastards  ("metis")  of  society,  dangerous 
and  discontented  disturbers  of  the  peace,  who  pretend  they 
know  everything,  and  want  to  improve  on  all  things:  "Esprits 
surveillants  et  pedagogues  des  causes  divines  et  humaines  ".  The 
desire  to  know  everything  is  the  ruin  of  mankind :  "  Du  cuider 
nait  tout  pe'che'".  Thus  "il  nous  Jaut  abetir  pour  nous  assagir" 
famous  words  which  will  be  taken  up  later  by  Pascal. 

The  human  mind  is  a  "dangerous  vagabond",  in  whose 


PROSE  87 

footsteps  misfortune  is  bound  to  follow  if  it  is  not  held  in 
check  and  prevented  from  forming  personal  opinions  danger- 
ous to  tradition  ("opinions  communes").  This  is  the  doctrine 
of  a  peace-loving  man  scared  by  the  excesses  of  the  civil  and 
religious  wars.  How  far  removed  from  the  spirit  of  the 
Kenaissance!  With  Montaigne  begins  the  reaction  of  the 
17th  century,  in  which  free  enquiry  is  replaced  by  the  opinions 
gdndrales,  by  authority. 

For  the  same  reason,  because  he  had  been  so  brought  up 
and  because  he  was  an  enemy  of  all  innovations  which  only 
engender  unrest,  Montaigne  lived  and  died  a  Catholic,  and 
condemned  the  Reformation  as  a  presumptuous  revolution. 
But  Montaigne's  scepticism  is  not  universal.  If  he  denies  the 
possibility  of  attaining  certitude  in  metaphysical  and  scientific 
matters,  no  man  was  ever  more  persuaded  of  the  worth  of  life 
on  this  earth,  of  the  art  of  "  enjoying  his  being  loyally ", 
which  he  held  to  be  the  "fundamental  and  most  illustrious 
of  our  occupations  ".  This  task  is  difficult  indeed,  for  nothing 
is  constant  here  below  ("le  monde  n'est  qu'une  branloire  per- 
pttuelle");  the  safest  and  most  pleasant  plan  is  to  follow  nature, 
in  whose  goodness  and  excellence  Montaigne,  like  Rabelais, 
was  an  ardent  believer.  Virtue  consists  in  a  life  true  to 
nature  and  is  thus  "  une  qualiU  plaisante  et  gaie  ". 

Notwithstanding,  Montaigne  admires  those  who,  like  So- 
crates, find  strength  enough  in  their  natural  reason  to  check 
their  passions  by  means  of  their  will.  The  discipline  of  our 
natural  impulses,  but  not  the  violent  asceticism  of  the  Middle 
Ages,  which  he  hates,  is  his  ideal,  although  he  owns  that  he 
did  not  come  up  to  it  himself:  "Je  n'ai  pas  cwrigi  par  la,  farce 
de  la  raison  mes  complexions  (disposition)  naturelles  ". 

Whosoever,  like  Montaigne,  considers  practical  morals  as 
the  sole  object  worthy  of  occupying  us,  must  necessarily  feel 
particularly  interested  in  the  great  problem  of  education,  and 
to  it  he  has  devoted  a  large  amount  of  space  in  the  Essays. 
To  us,  especially  as  compared  with  Rabelais,  his  views  on 
education  are  perhaps  the  most  attractive  part  of  his  book. 

In  matters  of  education  (see  i.  23,  24,  and  25,  and  ii.  17), 


88  SIXTEENTH   CENTURY — SECOND   PERIOD 

Montaigne  is  too  much  predisposed  in  favour  of  that  facile 
and  smiling  virtue  to  which  "  des  routes  ombrageuses,  gazonntes 
et  doux-fleurantes  "  lead,  but  we  can  only  approve  when  he  has 
a  hit  at  those  "  ushers  who  pillage  science  in  books  and  lodge 
it  at  the  tip  of  their  lips  only  to  disgorge  it  and  scatter  it 
to  the  winds",  or  "who  fill  the  memory  of  their  pupils,  but 
leave  their  understanding  and  conscience  void  and  empty  ". 

The  pupil  should  be  taught  to  do  "  ce  qu'il  doit  /aire  estant 
homme";  his  faculties,  reason,  and  judgment  must  first  be 
developed ;  in  a  word,  we  must  educate  and  not  merely  instruct. 
If  the  pupil's  judgment  is  not  healthy,  and  if  he  does  not  make 
knowledge  really  his  own,  let  him  rather  play  tennis,  says 
Montaigne,  his  body  at  all  events  will  be  the  better  for  it. 

As  for  the  method  to  be  pursued,  the  master  should  not 
confine  himself  to  books;  every  place  and  occasion  should  be 
utilized.  Montaigne  also  recommends  the  learning  of  modern 
foreign  languages,  and  protests  against  the  great  amount  of 
time  wasted  on  Latin  and  Greek.  Travelling  and  intercourse 
with  others  are  not  forgotten,  while  corporal  punishment  and 
the  brutality  of  schoolmasters  are  mercilessly  attacked. 

The  chief  faults  of  Montaigne's  system  are  that  individual 
effort  plays  too  small  a  part,  and  that  athletic  training  is  too 
much  neglected.  In  practice  his  theories  lead  to  the  method 
of  the  Jesuits,  the  developing  of  social  and  worldly  qualities, 
in  substance  the  honntte  homme  or  gentleman  of  the  17th 
century. 

Montaigne's  style  is  original  and  personal,  short  and  broken, 
with  sharp  and  sudden  sallies,  full  of  vivid  imagery,  un- 
expected turns  and  word-combinations,  quite  different  from 
the  solid  and  monotonous  style  of  his  contemporaries.  His 
is  the  style  of  a  merry  and  animated  conversation :  "  Le  parler 
que  j'aime,  c'est  un  parler  simple  et  naif,  id  sur  le  papier  qu'a  la 
louche  ". 

His  language  is  not  so  original;  he  invented  little  in 
vocabulary  and  syntax,  and  he  uses  Latinisms  freely  like  most 
of  his  contemporaries.  He  reintroduced  old  words,  and  used 
Gascon  words  if  they  suited  his  purpose  better  than  French 


PROSE  89 

words,  but  in  those  two  things  he  only  did  what  the  PUiade 
had  recommended,  and  what  Ronsard  actually  did.  He  did 
not  pretend  to  invent,  and  considered  the  French  language 
quite  rich  enough  if  properly  handled. 

To  sum  up,  it  can  be  said  of  Montaigne  that  in  scientific 
and  metaphysical  affairs  he  demands  absolute  submission 
under  the  tutelage  of  ecclesiastic  guidance — a  doctrine  of 
servitude.  All  his  curiosity  and  attention  were  bestowed 
upon  questions  of  practical  morals,  in  the  indefatigable  dis- 
cussion of  which  he  placed  himself  under  the  guidance  of 
antiquity  as  opposed  to  medievalism — a  doctrine  of  freedom. 

During  the  last  years  of  his  life  Montaigne  enjoyed  the 
friendship  of  a  disciple  who  was  already  famous  for  his 
eloquence  as  a  preacher.  This  man  was  Pierre  Charron  (1541- 
1603),  the  author  of  two  noted  contributions  to  the  literature 
of  the  latter  years  of  the  century.  In  1593  he  published  the 
TraiM  des  trois  V&riUs  confre  les  Athdes,  Idoldtres,  Juifs,  Hdrttiques 
et  Schismatiques.  The  three  truths  that  Charron  tried  to  prove 
are — that  there  is  a  God;  that  He  is  only  known  to  the 
Christians;  and  thirdly  that  He  is  only  worshipped  as  he 
should  be  by  the  Eoman  Catholics.  This  was  followed  in 
1601  by  the  Traitt  de  la  Sagesse,  in  which  most  critics  have 
only  seen  a  systematic  exposition  of  Montaigne's  scepticism, 
but  which  is  really  an  attempt  to  establish  the  authority  of 
religion  on  a  rational  basis,  and  the  scepticism  of  which  is 
explained  by  the  fact  that  Charron  wished  to  show  that  the 
most  reasonable  thing  for  man  to  do  is  to  despair  of  ever 
being  able  to  attain  to  truth  through  reason. 

Very  few  of  the  ideas  contained  in  the  Sagesse  belong  to 
Charron.  Three  contemporaries,  Bodin  (Sagesse),  Montaigne 
and  Du  Vair,  are  unscrupulously  copied.  The  book  is  "  quM 
par  ci  par  la  ",  as  the  author  tells  us,  and  intentionally  so,  for 
his  object  was  to  give  a  synthesis  of  the  ideas  of  his  time  and 
not  to  write  an  original  work.  This  is  proved  by  the  atten- 
tion Charron  pays  to  composition,  a  preoccupation  which  is 
the  chief  originality  of  the  book. 

The   Traite"  de  la  Sagesse  met  with  great  success.      The 


90  SIXTEENTH   CENTURY — SECOND   PERIOD 

Sorbonne  condemned  it,  and  Charron  began  to  smooth  down 
the  passages  that  had  been  censured,  "pour  fermer  la  bouche 
aux  nudicieux  et  contenter  les  simples",  but  died  in  1603,  while 
still  engaged  on  the  task. 

Much  was  learnt  from  Charron  by  one  of  the  best  prose 
writers  of  the  16th  century,  Guillaume  Du  Vair  (1556-1621), 
orator  and  moralist,  who  for  some  unexplained  reason  has 
fallen  into  unmerited  oblivion.  No  man  before  him  did  so 
much  to  further  French  eloquence,  partly  by  the  publication 
of  his  works  on  that  subject  (Actions  et  Trails  Oratoires  and 
De  I' Eloquence  Fran$aise),  and  partly  by  his  translations  of 
^Eschines,  Demosthenes,  and  Cicero.  His  works  bearing  on 
philosophy  are  the  Philosophic  des  Stoiques,  and  the  TraM  de  la 
Sainte  Philosophic,  in  which  he  gives  up  as  hopeless  the  idea  of 
secularizing  moral  philosophy,  and  seeing  no  way  of  remedying 
coiTUption  but  by  a  return  to  Christian  morality,  proclaims  its 
necessity,  thereby  anticipating  Pascal 


BOOK  III 

SEVENTEENTH   CENTURY 


GENERAL  VIEW 

The  17th  century  is  the  Classical1  period  proper  of  French 
literature.  At  no  time,  except  perhaps  during  the  middle 
portion  of  the  19th  century,  has  such  a  galaxy  of  talent 
appeared,  and  certainly  none  at  any  time  has  so  admirably 
represented  what  are  the  leading  characteristics  of  French 
genius.  As  the  result  of  causes  which  will  be  discussed  in 
their  place,  the  17th  century  may  be  said  to  be  almost  devoid 
of  poetry,  if  by  that  we  understand  imagination,  sensibility, 
and  individuality;  but  in  compensation  it  has  produced  the 
three  greatest  French  dramatists  that  have  ever  lived — 
Corneille,  Moliere,  and  Racine,  the  second  of  whom  is  gene- 
rally looked  upon  as  unsurpassed  in  comic  art;  the  father  of 
modern  philosophy — Descartes;  the  greatest  fabulist  and  the 
greatest  pulpit-orator  in  the  world's  literature  in  La  Fontaine 
and  Bossuet,  not  to  mention  a  host  of  other  names  of  the 
highest  rank,  such  as  Pascal,  Boileau,  La  Kochefoucauld,  La 
Bruyere,  Fenelon,  St.  Simon. 

The  literature  of  the  17th  century  falls  naturally  into  three 
periods : 

(a)  From  1605  to   1659,  a  period  of  preparation  and  of 
struggle  between  old  traditions  and  new  ideals. 

(b)  From  1659  to  1689,  the  golden  age  of  French  Classicism, 
in   which   these   ideals   were   realized    in   a   series   of   great 
masterpieces. 

1  The  wider  acceptation  of  the  term  includes  the  18th  as  well  as  the  17th 
century. 


02  SEVENTEENTH   CENTUIIT 

(e)  From  1689  to  1715,  a  period  of  transition,  during  which 
the  classical  ideal  gradually  wanes,  and  is  replaced  by  the 
appearance  of  new  ideas  that  announce  the  critical  and 
scientific  spirit  of  the  18th  century. 

The  literature  of  the  16th  century  had  been  revolutionary 
and  individualistic.  That  of  the  17th  is  social,  and  all  its 
characteristics  can  be  deduced  from  its  identification  with  the 
social  ideal. 

During  the  first  period  public  opinion  completed  the  sub- 
mission of  the  spirit  of  individualism,  lack  of  discipline,  and 
license  which  had  already  begun  under  the  reign  of  Henry  IV. 
But  this  result  was  not  reached  without  a  hard  struggle; 
writers  like  Regnier,  De  Viau,  and  other  belated  representa- 
tives of  a  past  age,  fought  stoutly  against  the  new  spirit  and  in 
favour  of  the  prerogatives  of  the  Gallic  spirit,  and  we  know 
that  they  had  no  inconsiderable  following.  The  honour  of 
having  turned  the  tide  in  favour  of  the  new  ideal  is  generally 
attributed  to  Francois  Malherbe.  This  opinion  is  no  doubt 
due  to  the  hackneyed  lines  in  Boileau's  Art  Pottique — 

"  Enfin  Malherbe  vint,  et,  le  premier  en  France  ",  &c. ; 

but  we  think  it  more  reasonable  to  ascribe  the  transforma- 
tion which  took  place  between  the  years  1610  and  1630  to 
the  influence  of  the  salons,  or  social  and  literary  gatherings, 
of  certain  society  ladies  known  afterwards  as  Precieuses. 
Though  the  Precieuses  were  responsible  for  certain  faults 
which  will  be  noticed  in  due  course,  yet  from  the  very  fact  of 
their  being  no  longer  a  negligible  quantity  in  literature,  they 
made  ample  amends.  They  delivered  literature  from  pedan- 
try, polished  language  and  manners,  and  moreover  assured 
the  victory  of  the  social  ideal,  which  made  it  obligatory  on 
writers  to  give  expression  to  common  or  general  ideas  rather 
than  to  particular  opinions.  In  this  way  they  established  the 
vogue  of  those  branches  of  literature  known  as  universal,  the 
essential  characteristic  of  which  is  that  their  very  existence 
depends  upon  the  existence  of  a  public  to  encourage  them. 
In  1635  the  Academy  was  founded,  and  although  it  took 


GENERAL  VIEW  93 

the  direction  of  the  language  out  of  the  hands  of  the  Prdcieuses, 
it  had  little  effect  upon  their  social  influence,  and  acted  in  the 
same  direction,  as  did  also  the  works  of  Vaugelas  and  of 
Balzac.  In  time,  however,  the  influence  for  good  of  the 
Prddeuses  was  more  than  counterbalanced  by  their  affectation, 
reinforced  by  Italian  concetti,  or  later  by  Spanish  pomposity. 
A  masterpiece  became  necessary  to  bring  back  literature  to 
the  right  path.  In  1656  Pascal's  Lettres  Provinciates  appeared, 
and  not  only  was  the  language  fixed,  to  use  Voltaire's  words, 
but,  what  is  more,  the  characteristics  of  French  classical  litera- 
ture and  of  the  classical  ideal,  as  illustrated  by  the  masterpieces 
of  Moliere,  La  Fontaine,  and  Eacine,  the  representatives  of 
the  golden  age  of  French  literature,  for  whom  nature  became 
the  model,  the  aim  and  end  of  art. 

ere  it  is  necessary  to  examine  the  restrictions  to  which 
this  rule  of  rules  was  subjected,  and  we  shall  see  that  the 
literature  of  the  Bcole  du  Naturel  was  a  faithful  imitation  of 
nature,  but  only  of  a  part  and  not  the  whole.  Nature  is  the 
model,  but  the  fidelity  of  the  artistic  imitation  can  only  be 
discerned  by  good  sense  and  reason.  Thus  it  was  not  the 
study  of  nature  in  all  her  forms  and  aspects  that  they  strove 
to  imitate,  but  only  la  nature  raisonnante,  that  is  to  say,  the 
essential  and  the  general,  and  from  this  it  follows  that  the 
lower  attributes,  the  accidental,  the  ephemeral,  and  the  local, 
must  be  eliminated  as  not  being  conformable  to  the  general 
plan  of  nature.  And,  in  order  to  make  sure  that  their  imita- 
tion was  faithful,  and  that  they  might  not  fail  to  distinguish 
the  constant  from  the  variable  and  the  principal  from  the 
accessory,  all  the  writers  of  this  age  went  to  the  great  poets 
of  antiquity  for  their  models,  not  because  they  had  any 
pedantic  preference  for  them  as  ancients,  but  because  the  fact 
of  their  having  stood  the  test  of  time  for  so  long,  in  spite  of 
wars,  revolutions,  and  the  changes  of  modern  civilization, 
proved  conclusively  that  their  works  must  be  founded  on 
truth  to  the  constant  and  universal  in  human  nature.1 

1  This  point  is  brought  out  clearly  in   several  passages  of   Boileau's 
Reflexions  Critiques  sur  Lonyin :  "  II  riy  a  en  effct  que  I 'approbation  de  la 


94  SEVENTEENTH   CENTURT 

Another  characteristic  of  the  literature  of  this  period  is 
that,  in  its  aims,  and  generally  in  regard  to  its  modes  of 
expression,  it  is  moral,  but  only  in  so  far  as  morality  is  indis- 
pensable to  the  existence  of  society. 

Lastly,  as  the  poet  was  solely  concerned  with  common  ideas, 
he  could  only  excel  in  the  manner  in  which  he  expressed  them, 
and  this  naturally  led  to  the  perfection  of  form  in  poetry; 
while,  on  the  other  hand,  the  strict  domination  of  reason  was 
accompanied  by  many  drawbacks,  such  as  the  elimination  of 
external  nature,1  of  individuality,  and  even  of  imagination  and 
sensibility,  which  are  generally  considered  the  prerogatives  of 
poetry. 

To  us  who  are  accustomed  to  a  more  complex  conception  of 
nature,  or  who  consider  that  the  height  of  genius  is  the  com- 
bination of  the  typical  and  the  individual,  it  may  seem  at  first 
sight  that  the  great  writers  of  this  period  have  represented 
psychological  abstractions  rather  than  real  living  characters. 
As  a  rule  this  charge  is  not  applicable  to  the  greatest  among 
them,  and  though  their  conception  of  art  and  truth  may  differ 
from  ours  it  is  identical  with  that  of  the  ancients,  and  if 
we  admire  Sophocles  we  ought  not  to  grudge  our  praise  to 
Racine.  One  cause  of  our  comparative  lack  of  appreciation  is 
that  they  failed  in  local  colour,  though  at  bottom  an  artist 
can  only  successfully  represent  what  he  sees;  but  perhaps  the 
main  reason  is  that  we  miss  in  them  that  wonderful  admixture 
of  poetry  and  reality  which  makes  the  greatness  of  Shake- 
speare. 

Hardly  had  the  literature  of  the  17th  century  reached  its 
height  when  it  began  to  decline.  France  lost  her  political  pre- 

posterite  qui  puisse  ttoblir  le  vrai  merite  des  ouvrages";  or  again,  "L'anti- 
quitt  d'un  ecrivain  n'est  pas  un  titre  certain  de  son  mdrite,  mais  I'antique  et 
constante  admiration  qu'on  a  toujours  cue  pour  ses  ouvrages  est  une  preuve 
sure  et  infaittible  qu'on  le  doit  admirer  ". 

1  No  doubt  that  the  domination  of  reason  was  furthered  by  Descartes' 
philosophy,  although  we  do  not  think  that  his  mechanical  view  of  nature 
can  be  made  wholly  accountable  for  the  absence  of  external  nature  in  17th 
century  literature,  seeing  that  it  is  already  absent  in  the  literature  of  the 
Middle  Ages  and  of  the  16th  century,  and  only  appeared  for  the  first  time 
in  the  18th  century. 


GENERAL   VIEW 


dominance,  manners  grew  coarser,  cliques  reappeared,  and  the 
atheists  or  libertins  of  the  early  years  of  the  century  could  no 
longer  be  kept  down  even  by  the  eloquent  diatribes  of  Bossuet. 
The  ideas  of  Descartes,  too,  were  distorted  and  used  as  a 
weapon  against  religious  belief,  while  Bayle  in  his  first  work, 
Les  Penstes  sur  la  Comete  (1682),  by  opposing  the  "evidences  of 
reason"  to  the  truths  of  religion,  drove  the  attack  home,  and 
dealt  a  fatal  blow  to  tradition  and  authority,  on  which  litera- 
ture had  hitherto  rested.  A  few  years  later  Fontenelle,  the 
bulk  of  whose  work  belongs  to  the  18th  century,  by  the 
publication  of  the  Entretiens  sur  la  Plurality  des  Mondes  (1686), 
acting  as  an  intermediary  between  science  and  the  world  of 
fashion,  suggested  that  science  is  our  best  way  to  truth. 
Finally,  Charles  Perrault,  by  championing  the  Moderns  in  the 
famous  Quarrel  of  the  Ancients  and  Moderns,  defended  the  idea 
of  human  progress,  and  instead  of  depicting  man  in  general  as 
found  in  the  ancient  classics,  writers  now  strove  to  depict  the 
manners  and  ideas  of  their  time. 

Language. — Modern  French  proper  dates  from  the  17th 
century.  Henceforth  the  French  language  may  be  considered 
as  fixed  in  its  main  outlines,  although  such  a  term  is  of  course 
only  relatively  correct.  The  individualistic  and  independent 
spirit  of  the  16th  century  had  rendered  a  standard  language 
impossible;  each  writer  followed  his  own  fancy,  "le  langage 
escouloit  tmijours  des  mains",  as  Montaigne  tells  us.  Here  as 
elsewhere  the  17th  ctentury  replaced  anarchy  and  disorder  by 
regularity  and  uniformity.  The  language  spoken  by  the  better 
part  of  the  court  and  authors  was  adopted  as  the  model;  a 
kind  of  aristocracy  in  words  was  established,  a  large  number 
being  excluded  as  lacking  in  elegance  or  nobility,  while  the 
creation  of  new  words  was  strictly  prohibited.  In  this  way 
the  language  lost  in  force  and  picturesqueness,  but  gained  in 
clearness  and  precision :  "  La  phrase  ",  says  a  famous  scholar, 
"a  une  noblesse  failures,  une  majesU  toute  naturelle;  une  tendance 
g6ntrale  des  esprits  &  I' analyse  psychologique,  un  gout  prononce  pour 
les  abstractions,  rendent  cette  langue  capable  d'exprimer  nettement  et 
fortement  les  idfas  ge"ne"rales  les  plus  ubstraites  et  les  nuances  les  plus 


96  SEVENTEENTH   CENTURY— FIRST   PERIOD 

fines  de  V analyse,  et  de  soutenir  sans  effort  le  poids  des  conceptions 
les  plus  profondes.  La  penste  la  plus  puissante  ou  la  plus  subtile 
trouve  en  elle  un  instrument  d' expression  d'une  delicatesse  sans  fgale. 
Elle  est  devenue  le  vetement  le  plus  souple  gui  puisse  dessiner  les 
formes  de  I'idde  sans  la  voiler." 


FIRST  PERIOD   (1605-1659) 
CHAPTER  I 

POETRY 

The  literary  reformation  which  took  place  at  the  beginning 
of  the  17th  century  is  generally  put  down  to  the  credit  of 
Francois  de  Malherbe  (1555-1628).  This  is  incorrect  in  the 
main.  All  he  did  was  to  apply  to  poetry,  better  than  anyone 
before  him,  a  new  literary  ideal  in  conformity  with  the  desire 
for  peace,  order,  and  discipline,  which  was  then  making  itself 
felt  throughout  France,  as  opposed  to  the  individualistic  ten- 
dencies of  the  16th  century.  This  reformation,  as  we  shall 
see,  was  the  work  not  of  a  single  man,  but  of  the  salons,  or 
literary  and  social  gatherings  of  the  time.  Moreover,  we  know 
that  Malherbe's  finest  poems,  which  during  his  lifetime  were 
scattered  through,  and  to  some  extent  lost  in,  the  anthologies 
of  the  day,  did  not  appear  in  collected  form  till  1630,  two 
years  after  his  death,  and  that  he  did  not  leave  any  disciples, 
rightly  so  called.  Thus  we  are  led  to  the  conclusion  that 
Malherbe  experienced  the  consequences  of  this  transformation 
far  more  than  he  brought  it  about  or  even  conceived  it. 
As  exemplified  in  his  works  it  bears  on  two  points — language 
and  versification. 

In  language  he  "selected"  from  the  vocabulary  of  the 
PUiade,  rejecting  all  base,  dialectical,  technical,  and  archaic 
words,  all  Latinisms  and  compounds,  urging  that  writers  should 
employ  the  standard1  French  only  as  accepted  by  the  people 

1  It  is  in  this  sense  that  we  are  to  understand  Racan's  famous  words  in 
bis  life  of  Malherbe:  "Quand  on  lui  demandoit  son  avis  de  qudque  mat 


POETRY  97 

of  Paris.  At  the  same  time,  and  in  spite  of  the  disdain  he 
affected  for  the  past,  he  did  not  break  with  it  so  much  as 
some  have  pretended.  His  general  conception  of  poetry  is 
that  of  Ronsard;  like  him  he  made  points,  and  drew  too 
largely  upon  mythology,  while  his  sentiments  are  also  purely 
pagan.  In  matters  of  versification  he  was  more  drastic:  he 
insisted  on  rich  and  exact  rime;  he  rejected  rime  between  a 
simple  word  and  its  compound  (jour  :  sejour;  mettre  :  permettre, 
&c.);  between  words  too  easy  to  couple,  such  as  montagne  and 
campagne,  or  between  short  and  long  syllables.  Other  pre- 
cepts on  this  score  are  to  be  found  in  a  copy  of  Desportes' 
poems,  to  which  Malherbe  added  marginal  critical  notes. 
There  he  forbids  enjambement  or  overflow,  inversion,  hiatus, 
cacophony,  and  absence  of  caesura. 

Of  verse-combinations  he  only  accepted  a  few  of  those 
bequeathed  by  Ronsard;  but  all  he  wrote  he  wrote  with  the 
greatest  care,  and  never  allowed  his  muse  to  infringe  the 
"rules  of  duty";  he  polished  and  repolished  his  verses  till 
every  trace  of  dissonance  had  disappeared.  Two  or  three 
stanzas  would  often  cost  him  reams  of  paper,  and  his  friend 
Racan,  in  the  Vie  de  Malherbe,  tells  us  that  he  used  to  say  that 
"apres  avoir  fait  un  poeme  de  cent  vers  ou  un  discours  de  trois 
feuilles,  il  fallait  se  reposer  dix  ans  tout  entiers". 

Malherbe's  merit  and  his  originality  lie  in  his  excellence  as 
an  artisan  in  versification.  He  was  the  first  to  add  to  the 
classical  doctrine  of  Ronsard  that  polish,  harmony,  and  cor- 
rectness which  are  among  the  leading  characteristics  of  the 
literature  of  the  17th  century,  and  without  which  no  master- 
piece is  possible.  On  the  other  hand,  Malherbe  lacks  the 
qualities  which  make  the  poet.  It  would  be  almost  impossible 
to  be  more  deficient  than  he  is  in  enthusiasm,  imagination, 
sensibility,  and  naturalness.  His  ideal,  as  was  the  case  with 
Ronsard  as  he  grew  older,  tended  towards  the  entire  elimi- 
nation of  the  personal  element  from  poetry,  and  its  trans- 


iK,  il  renvoyoit  ordinairement  aux  crochcteurs  duport  au  Foin  et  disoit 
que  c'estoient  ses  maistres  pour  le  lanyage."  By  that  Malherbe  did  not 
mean  to  enjoin  that  authors  should  write  like  market-porters,  but  that  they 
should  use  no  word  or  turn  that  would  be  unintelligible  to  them. 

(M043)  G 


98  SEVENTEENTH   CENTURY — FIRST   PERIOD 

formation  into  oratory.  This  change  responded  exactly  to 
the  taste  of  the  time,  and  proved  salutary  in  some  branches  of 
literature,  but  was  naturally  the  death-knell  of  lyrical  poetry 
proper,  which  did  not  reappear  till  the  beginning  of  the  19th 
century  with  the  "Romantic  Movement". 

As  can  be  easily  imagined,  Malherbe's  methods  did  not 
lead  to  great  and  rapid  production.  His  works  consist,  (a)  of 
his  Poems,  in  all  125  pieces,  the  first  of  which,  Les  Larmes  de 
Saint  Pierre,  appeared  in  1587,  and  the  last,  Les  Vers  Funtlres 
sur  la  Mort  d' Henri  le  Grand,  not  until  the  edition  of  1630; 
(b)  of  his  Commentaire  sur  Desportes ;  (c)  of  a  few  translations 
from  the  Latin,  and  of  his  Correspondance. 

Just  as  a  new  ideal  was  about  to  rise  on  the  ruins  of  the 
old,  the  latter  suddenly  threw  out  a  sudden  and  brilliant 
light.  In  1608  a  collection  of  nineteen  satires  appeared,  which 
placed  Mathurin  Rtgnier  (1573-1613),  their  author,  in  the 
first  rank  of  French  poets. 

When  Regnier  began  to  write  he  was  only  a  belated  disciple 
of  the  16th  century,  who  strove  to  retain  the  license  of  the 
manners  of  a  past  age.  This  is  why  Boileau,  while  granting 
that  no  poet  before  Moliere  was  so  well  acquainted  with  the 
manners  and  characters  of  men,  blames  Regnier  for  his  rimes 
cyniques  (ribald  rimes),  although  a  satirist  cannot  always  be 
expected  to  avoid  calling  a  spade  a  spade.  In  his  Satires, 
imitated  or  remodelled  from  Horace,  Pliny,  Juvenal,  or  the 
Italians  Berni  and  Delia  Costa,  he  attacks  courtiers,  parasites, 
hypocrites,  and  braggarts.  The  two  best  are  Macette,  the  por- 
trait of  a  pious  hypocrite,  no  unworthy  ancestor  of  the  family 
of  Tartufe,  and  the  one  (Satire  IX)  directed  against  the  over- 
weening criticism  of  Malherbe,  in  defence  of  the  PUiade,  which 
had  been  attacked  by  Malherbe  in  the  person  of  Desportes, 
Re"gnier's  uncle. 

If  Regnier  stood  up  for  Ronsard  and  Desportes,  it  was  more 
out  of  opposition  to  Malherbe  than  because  he  himself  followed 
the  precepts  of  the  PUiade  or  of  its  later  followers.  In  fact, 
Ronsa,rd's  literary  ideal  was  more  like  that  of  Malherbe  than 
that  of  Regnier;  the  PUiade  fought  for  art  and  form  like 


POETRY  99 

Malherbe,  though  less  consciously,  while  Regnier  continued 
the  Gallic  spirit  of  Villon  and  Marot,  abandoning  the  artificial 
and  aristocratic  idiom  of  the  PUiade  for  a  more  popular,  col- 
oured, and  picturesque  style. 

The  real  antagonism  between  Malherbe  and  Regnier  is  to 
be  found  in  the  fundamental  conception  they  each  formed  of 
poetry.  The  former  was  guided  solely  by  reason  and  discipline; 
the  latter  by  native  genius  and  imagination,  as  is  sufficiently 
attested  by  the  following  lines  of  Regnier's  ninth  satire,  La 
Defense  des  Anciens  Poetes: — 

"  Cependant  leur  savoir  ne  s'dtend  seulement 
Qu'a  regratter  un  mot  douteux  au  jugement, 
Prendre  garde  qu'un  '  qui'  ne  heurte  une  diphtongue 
Epier  si  des  vers  la  rime  est  breve  ou  longue, 
Ou  bien  si  la  voyelle  &  I'autre  s'unissant 
Ne  rend  point  d  Voreitte  un  vers  trop  languissant; 
Et  laissent  sur  le  vert  (abandon)  le  noble  de  I'ouvrage." 

Or  by  another  passage  in  the  same  piece,  where  Malherbe's 
weak  point  is  severely  censured : — 

"  Nul  aiguillon  divin  rieUve  leur  courage; 
Us  rampent  basscment,  faibles  d' inventions, 
Et  n'osent,  pen  hardis,  tenter  les  fictions, 
Froids  a  Vimaginer;  car  s'ils  font  quelque  chose 
CTest  proser  de  la  rime  et  rimer  de  la  prose, 
Que  I' art  lime  et  relime,  et  polit  dc  fafon 
Qu'elle  rende  a  I'oreille  un  agr&Me  son." 

Yet  to  some  extent  Re'gnier  rendered  the  same  service  to 
French  poetry  as  Malherbe ;  like  him  he  turned  away  from  the 
languid  elegance  and  mawkishness  of  the  degenerate  disciples 
of  Ronsard  to  observation  of  life.  For  that  reason  the  later 
classical  school  felt  that  they  could  not  reject  the  work  of  him 
who  is  the  first  great  French  satirist  before  Boileau. 

Another  opponent  of  Malherbe  was  Theophile  de  Viau 
(1590-1626),  like  Regnier,  a  liberlin1  or  upholder  of  the  literary 
and  philosophic  ideas  of  the  century  of  Montaigne.  As  a  poet 
his  contemporaries  esteemed  him  too  highly,  but  on  the  other 

1  In  the  17th  century  the  term  libertin  applied  as  much,  if  not  more,  to 
freedom  of  thinking  as  to  license  of  morals. 


100  SEVENTEENTH  CENTURY —FIRST  PERIOD 

hand,  Malherbe,  and  afterwards  Boileau,  unjustly  depreciated 
him.  Some  of  his  pieces,  such  as  La  Solitude,  show  considerable 
lyrical  gifts,  and  charm  the  ear  by  their  free  and  musical 
movement,  while  others,  although  often  marred  by  the  most 
offensive  vulgarity,  evince  a  keen  feeling  for  nature  (cp.  Lettre 
&  son  Frere,  in  verse). 

His  judgments  in  literary  matters  were  sound  and  original, 
and  in  his  fragmentary  Histoire  Comique  he  appears  as  an  early 
partisan  of  the  Moderns  against  the  Classicists: 

"Ces  larcins  qu'on  appelle  '  imitation  des  auteurs  anciens',  se 
devraient  dire:  des  ornements  qui  ne  sont  point  a  noire  mode.  II 
faut  ecrire  &  la  moderne:  Ddmosthene  et  Virgile  n'ont  point  e"crit  en 
noire  temps  et  nous  ne  saurions  forire  en  lew  si&cle;  leurs  limes 
quand  Us  les  firent  ttaient  nouveaux,  et  nous  en  faisons  tous  les 
jours  de  vieux.  L' invocation  des  Muses  a  I'exemple  de  ces  paiens 
est  profane  pour  nous  et  ridicule" 

One  of  Theophile's  (for  thus  was  he  called  by  his  contem- 
poraries) most  beautiful  pieces  is  the  Eltgie  a  une  Dame,1  in 
which,  siding  with  Regnier  against  Malherbe,  he  vindicates 
the  rights  of  free  poetic  inspiration: 

.     "  Man  dme  imaginant  n'a  point  la  patience 
De  bien  pdir  les  vers,  et  ranger  la  science; 
I/a  regie  me  dtplaU;  j'dcris  confustment; 
Jamais  un  bon  esprit  ne  fait  rien  qu'aise"ment ",  && 

The  Hotel  de  Rambouillet  and  the  Precieuses. — Peace  and 
social  order  had  returned  to  France  with  the  monarchy,  but 
the  individualistic,  unruly,  and  licentious  spirit  of  a  former  age 
had  not  been  entirely  subdued,  and  still  left  traces  in  the  court 
of  Henry  the  IVth,  which  to  many  still  appeared  very  much 
lacking  in  polish.  In  1608  a  distinguished  lady,  Catherine 
de  Vivonne,  Marquise  de  Rambouillet,  the  daughter  of  a  great 
Roman  lady,  and  whose  father  had  been  French  ambassador  at 
Rome,  decided  to  retire  from  the  rude  Gascon  court  of  Henry, 
and  to  throw  open  her  mansion  for  literary  and  social  gather- 
ings, where  lords  and  ladies,  on  a  footing  of  temporary  equality 

1  Would  now  be  called  an  "  epistle". 


POETRT  101 

with  men  of  letters,  might  exchange  ideas  on  literature,  refine- 
ment, and  good  taste.  Such  is  the  origin  of  the  Hotel  de 
Rambouillet,  the  first  of  those  literary  and  social  salons,  as  they 
were  called,  which  were  destined  to  have  so  great  an  influence 
on  French  literature,  and  which  lasted  on  and  off  till  the 
outbreak  of  the  French  Revolution. 

Although  gatherings  seem  to  have  taken  place  as  early  as 
1613,  the  real  importance  of  the  Hotel  de  fiambmdllet,  and  its 
famous  diambre  bleue,  where  the  marchioness  used  to  receive 
her  friends,  dates  from  1618.  The  idea  of  the  marquise  and 
her  circle  was  to  realize  the  ideal  of  refined  and  polite  society, 
which  D'Urfe  had  depicted  in  his  romance  of  Astre'e.  No  one 
could  have  been  better  fitted  for  this  task  than  Catherine  de 
Vivonne,  in  praise  of  whose  accomplishments,  beauty,  and 
nobility  of  character  all  contemporaries  are  unanimous. 

The  history  of  the  Hotel  de  Eambouillct  falls  into  three  periods. 
From  1620  c.-l  630  the  circle  takes  in  recruits  and  prospers. 
The  hosts  include  Richelieu,  the  famous  Mile  Paulet,  who 
dances,  sings,  and  plays  the  lute  to  admiration — for  such 
worldly  diversions  were  not  debarred;  and  among  authors 
Malherbe,  Racan  his  friend,  Chapelain,  Vaugelas,  and  Balzac. 
The  second  and  most  brilliant  period  extends  from  1630  to 
the  death  of  Voiture  in  1648.  Only  a  few  gaps  had  taken 
place  among  the  lords  and  ladies  of  the  circle,  and  these  were 
quickly  filled  up  and  fresh  hosts  added — La  Rochefoucauld, 
the  Duke  de  Montau'sier,  the  Marquise  de  Sable,  the  future 
Duchesse  de  Longueville;  and  among  literary  lights,  Corneille, 
Menage  the  grammarian,  but  above  all  the  plebeian  Vincent 
Voiture  (1598-1648),  the  soul  of  the  circle,  who  held  his  place 
on  the  tacit  understanding  that  he  should  always  be  witty. 
Voiture  may  be  looked  upon  as  the  living  incarnation  of  the 
aspirations  of  the  Hotel.  He  wrote  poems,  most  of  which  are 
insipid,  but  he  is  more  famous  for  his  letters  addressed  to 
the  marchioness  and  the  lords  and  ladies  of  her  entourage, 
which,  though  occasionally  far-fetched  and  over-ingenious,  are 
always  vivacious  and  witty.  Thanks  to  the  personal  influence 
of  the  marchioness  herself,  who  seems  to  have  been  a  person 


102  SEVENTEENTH   CENTURY — FIRST   PERIOD 

of  good  sense,  till  about  1640  the  talk  of  her  salon  remained 
free  from  exaggerated  affectation.  Balzac  writes  in  1638: 
"  On  n'y  parle  point  savamment,  mais  on  y  parle  raisonnablement, 
et  il  n'y  a  lieu  au  monde  ou  il  y  ait  plus  de  bon  sens  et  moins  de 
pddanterie".  But  soon  after,  the  epidemic  broke  out;  some 
voted  for  the  conjunction  car,  and  others  against;  heated 
discussions  took  place  which  should  be  the  approved  spelling, 
mnscardin  or  muscadin,  sarge  or  serge,  while  words  which  ap- 
peared insufficiently  "  noble  "  were  ruthlessly  rejected.  When 
Julie  and  Angelique  became  of  age  to  share  their  mother's 
authority  in  the  salon,  these  faults  were  aggravated — Cor- 
neille's  Polyeucte  was  censured,  and  after  a  reading  of  Chape- 
Iain's  inane  epic  on  the  Maid  of  Orleans,  the  Duchess  of 
Longueville  could  not  help  remarking  "  that  it  was  perfectly 
beautiful,  but  extremely  tiresome".  Then  it  was  that  Mon- 
tausier,  who  had  sighed  twelve  long  years  for  Julie's  hand, 
offered  her  the  famous  Guirlande  de  Julie,  in  which  every 
flower  represented  in  a  drawing  had  its  appropriate  poem, 
and  all  conspired  to  the  praise  of  Julia.  Things  became 
still  worse  in  the  third  period  (1648  to  1665,  the  date 
of  the  death  of  the  Marquise  de  Eambouillet),  though  a 
few  more  additions  were  made,  and  Mme  de  Sevigne",  Mme 
de  la  Fayette,  and  Flechier  joined  the  fashionable  assembly. 
The  quarrel  of  the  Uranistes  and  Jobelins  (1649)  split  the 
society  into  two  factions — some  for  Voiture's  sonnet  on 
Urania,  and  others  for  Benserade's  on  Job — and  introduced 
a  spirit  of  coterie  and  rivalry.  It  was  then  that  the  terms 
prtcieux  and  pi'dcieuse  were  first  applied  to  the  frequenters  of 
the  Hotel,  and  similar  literary  salons  formed  on  its  model. 
Of  these  the  most  famous  is  that  of  Mile  de  Scudery  (les 
samedis),  the  originality  of  which  consisted  in  having  adapted 
preciosity  to  the  requirements  of  the  middle  classes,  and  that 
of  Mile  de  Sable,  where  maxims  especially  were  the  fashion. 

In  time  the  salons  of  Paris  were  copied  and  their  faults 
exaggerated  by  provincial  coteries.  Chapelle,  writing  from 
Montpellier  in  1656,  says:  "A  lews  petites  mignardises,  a  leur 
parler  gras  et  leurs  discours  extraordinaires,  nous  vimes  lientot  gue 


POETRY  103 

une  assemble  de  prdcieuses".  It  was  these  later  imitations 
that  chiefly  contributed  to  render  preciosity  ridiculous.  In 
1659  Moliere  dealt  the  prdcieuses,  or  rather  their  degenerate 
followers,  a  severe  blow  in  his  satiric  comedy  of  the  Prdcieuses 
Ridicules,  but  it  was  not  a  death-blow,  for  he  felt  obliged  to 
deliver  a  second  thirteen  years  later  in  the  Femmes  Savantes 
(1672);  in  fact,  the  spirit  of  preciosity  did  not  die  out,  and  its 
tradition  continued  with  interruptions  during  the  whole  of  the 
17th  century.  The  cabal  against  Racine's  Phedre  was,  as  it 
were,  a  revenge  for  the  Precieuses  Ridicules,  yet,  with  the 
advent  of  the  classical  ideal,  preciosity  was  confined  more  and 
more  to  mere  cliques.  All  that  is  remembered  usually  of  the 
prfaieuses  is  the  characteristics  by  which  they  lend  themselves 
to  ridicule,  and  it  must  be  owned  that  they  had  many  such. 
They  strove  by  the  introduction  of  points,  conceits,  and  forced 
metaphors  to  express  all  they  said  in  a  language  comprehen- 
sible to  the  initiated  alone,  and  unintelligible  to  the  people. 
It  is  interesting  to  read  in  this  connection  the  two  comedies 
of  Moliere,  or  the  Grand  Dictionnaire  des  Precieuses  of  Somaize 
(1661),  that  clumsy  advocate  of  their  cause.  There  we  learn 
that  "la  belle  mouvante"  is  the  hand;  that  by  "ks  commodiUs 
de  la  conversation"  is  meant  an  arm-chair;  that  "le  supplement 
du  soleil"  stands  for  the  moon;  and  "se  ddlabyrinther  les 
cheveux  "  for  to  comb  one's  hair.  Nevertheless,  all  their  meta- 
phors have  not  disappeared,  and  a  few  picturesque  and  graceful 
ones  have  resisted  the  onslaughts  of  time.  Such  are :  "  travestir 
sa  pens<*e",  "avoir  I'abord  peu  avenant",  "des  cheveux  d'un  blond 
hardi ",  &c. 

But  these  faults  were  more  than  outweighed  by  the  real 
services  which  preciosity  rendered  to  French  literature  during 
the  first  three  decades  of  the  century.  It  refined  the  language 
by  clearing  it  of  a  certain  pedantic  overgrowth,  and  also  of 
a  coarseness  that  disgraced  it;  it  enriched  it  by  determining 
the  exact  meaning  of  words,  by  adopting,  inventing,  or  creating 
new  turns  of  expression,  and  above  all  by  teaching  the  force 
a  word  acquires  when  put  in  its  right  place;  lastly,  it  elevated 
it,  although  it  is  quite  true  that  in  so  doing  it  drew  too  deep 


104  SEVENTEENTH    CENTURY— FIRST   PERIOD 

a  dividing  line  between  the  speech  of  the  vulgar  and  that  of 
polite  society. 

Noticeable  about  this  time  is  a  sudden,  and,  in  quantity  at 
any  rate,  considerable  outburst  of  epic  verse.  Greece  had 
had  its  Homer,  Italy  its  Virgil  and  its  Tasso,  whose  Jerusalem 
Delivered  had  but  lately  achieved  European  success,  and 
men  began  to  ask  why  France  should  not  also  have  her  great 
epic  poet.  The  outcome  was  six  huge  epics  in  the  space  of 
fifteen  years,  which  only  deserve  mention  from  the  fact  that 
they  passed  for  some  time  as  masterpieces,  and  a  few  years 
later  afforded  excellent  material  for  Boileau's  satiric  bent. 

The  chief  are  Georges  de  Scudery's  Alaric  (1651),  Chapelain's  La 
Pucette  (1656),  and  Jean  Desmarets  de  Saint-Sorlm's  C'lovis  (1657), 
which  indirectly  gave  rise  to  the  famous  Quarrel  of  the  Ancients  and 
Moderns  at  the  end  of  the  century. 

The  vogue  of  these  pseudo-epics  called  forth  parodies,  of 
which  the  most  famous  are  the  Typhon,  or  La  Gigantomachie 
(1644),  by  Paul  Scarron  (1610-1660),  and  the  Virgile  Travesli 
(1648-1653),  by  the  same  author,  which  was  considered  the 
model  of  its  kind. 


CHAPTER   II 

DRAMA 

The  academic,  classical,  and  Italian  drama  of  the  16th 
century  from  Jodelle  to  Montchretien  was  purely  literary, 
oratorical,  and  lyrical.  It  only  appealed  to  a  small  chosen 
class  of  learned  readers,  and  was  never  produced  on  the 
popular  stage. 

From  1600  to  1630  Alexandra  Hardy  (1570-1631),  the 
chief  playwright  and  provider  of  the  Hdtel  de  Bourgogne,  and 
a  few  followers,  established  a  new  dramatic  ideal,  in  which 
their  one  and  only  guide  was  the  requirements  of  a  popular 
audience.  Of  the  600-700  plays  which  this  French  Lope  de 
Vega  is  said  to  have  composed,  he  only  published  40,  namely, 
11  tragedies,  24  tragi-comedies,  and  5  pastorals. 


DRAMA  105 

The  tragedies  (Marianne,  Dido,  Mort  d'Akxandre,  &c.), 
Hardy  shaped  according  to  the  necessities  of  the  stage.  The 
choruses  which  he  had  at  first  introduced  were  afterwards 
dropped  as  injurious  to  dramatic  action.  The  taste  of  the 
public  was  decisive  for  him.  In  the  same  way  as  he  curtailed 
the  lyricism  of  tragedy,  so  did  he  curtail  eloquence  and 
rhetoric  in  favour  of  action.  His  characters,  too,  are  more 
numerous.  His  heroes  meet  and  die  on  the  stage,  and  he 
seldom  makes  use  of  messengers.  Tragic  action  with  Hardy 
can  last  for  days  and  even  months,  and  several  places  are 
often  represented  concurrently  on  the  stage,  as  in  the  old 
mysteries.  He  inclines  more  and  more  to  tragi-comedy,  which, 
together  with  the  pastoral,  crowded  out  regular  comedy  during 
the  first  thirty  years  of  the  century. 

Hardy's  tragi- comedies  proper  are  a  regular  medley  of 
tragedy  and  comedy,  in  which  the  action  lasts  for  years. 
In  eight  of  them  Heliodorus'  novel  of  Theagenes  and  Clariclea 
is  dramatized,  and  in  five  others  we  have  adaptations  of 
Spanish  novels  of  Cervantes,  Montemayor,  and  Agreda. 

The  pastoral  plays  are  mostly  love  stories,  the  heroes  of 
which  are  burgesses  or  peasants  dressed  in  shepherd's  garb. 
The  scene  is  transferred  to  Arcadia,  and  in  the  action  miracles 
and  witchcraft  find  a  place.  Doubtless  Hardy  was  influenced, 
as  he  tells  us,  by  Tasso's  Aminta  and  Guarini's  Pastor  Fido, 
strengthened  by  Montemayor's  Diana  and  D'Urf^'s  Astrfe. 
In  the  Pastorale  he  uses  the  decasyllabic  line. 

Hardy  is  probably  the  worst  writer  who  ever  composed  a 
play,  but  he  was  the  first  to  make  a  true  appeal  to  the  people, 
and  by  showing  a  genuine  appreciation  of  theatrical  effects  he 
transformed  an  academic  pastime  into  a  public  action. 

Another  representative  of  this  popular  and  irregular  drama 
is  Jean  de  Schelandre  (1585-1635),  whose  real  name  was 
Daniel  d'Ancheres.  His  play  of  Tyr  et  Sidon,  a  vast  drama 
in  two  parts,  which  shows  all  the  freedom  of  the  mysteries 
in  varying  its  scene  and  mingling  heroic  matter  and  buf- 
foonery, is  chiefly  known  for  its  preface  by  the  famous  scholar 
and  ecclesiast,  Francois  Ogier.  This  curious  example  of 


106  SEVENTEENTH    CENTURY- -  FIRST   PEK10D 

literary  criticism  is  a  furious  onslaught  upon  the  "Three 
Rules ",  which  critics  were  then  striving  to  impose  upon 
the  drama,  and  which  prevailed  so  imperiously  a  few  years 
later.  Ogier  congratulates  De  Schelandre  on  having  refused 
to  accept  such  trammels;  rises  vigorously  against  a  servile 
imitation  of  antiquity,  and  urges  poets  to  look  in  new 
paths  for  new  beauties,  more  in  conformity  with  the  genius 
of  the  time  and  of  their  race.  But  Ogier's  preface  passed 
unnoticed,  and  was  forgotten  to  such  an  extent  that  the  same 
ideas  appeared  entirely  new  and  audacious  when  they  made 
their  second  appearance,  exactly  two  hundred  years  later,  in 
Victor  Hugo's  preface  to  Cromwell  and  in  the  other  manifestoes 
of  the  "Romantic  School".  Nobody  in  1827  suspected  that 
Ogier  had  already  loudly  proclaimed  that  dramatic  truth  con- 
sists in  a  blending  of  heroism  and  buffoonery,  of  tragedy  and 
comedy. 

The  following  are  Ogier's  exact  words:  "Dire  qu'il  est 
malstant  de  faire  paraitre  en  une  meme  piece  les  memes  personnes 
traitant  tantot  d'affaires  sfrieuses,  importantes  et  tragiques,  et  incon- 
tinent (immediately)  apres  de  choses  communes,  vaines  et  comiques, 
c'est  ignorer  la  condition  de  la  vie  des  hommes,  de  qui  les  jours  et . 
les  heures  sont  bien  souvent  entrecoupts  de  ris  et  de  larmes,  de  con- 
tentement  et  d? affliction  selon  qu'ils  sont  agites  de  la  bonne  et  de  la 
mauvaise  fortune  ". 

Jean  de  Schelandre  was  not  a  great  enough  poet  to  make 
the  Shakespearian  drama  triumph  in  France,  in  spite  of  one 
or  two  beautiful  speeches  in  the  tragic  part  of  the  play,  such 
as  that  of  Abdolomin,  king  of  Sidon,  bending  under  the 
double  burden  of  long  years  and  a  heavy  crown. 

Theophile  de  Viau,  the  lyric  poet,  is  the  author  of  the 
tragedy  of  Pyramt  et  Tisbe"  (1617),  which  appeared  with  great 
success,  and  which  Boileau  has  rendered  immortal  by  his  ridi- 
cule of  two  very  absurd  lines  in  it: 

'Ahf  void  le  poignard  qui  du  sang  de  son  mattre 
S'est  souiUA  Idchementt    II  en  rougit,  le  trattrel" 

"Toutes  les  ghees  du  Nord  ensemble",  says  Boileau,  " ne  sont 


DRAMA  107 

pas  a  mon  sens  plus  froides  que  cette  pensfo" — and  he  was  right; 
yet  Pyrame  et  Tisb6  contains  many  lines  of  striking  lyrical 
beauty,  while  the  dialogue  in  parts  recalls  the  great  name  of 
Corneille. 

Lastly,  Les  Bergeries  of  Racan  (1589-1670)  deserves  notice 
as  perhaps  the  best  pastoral-play  in  French  literature. 

The  chief  characteristics  of  the  popular  drama  of  the  early 
part  of  the  17th  century  are:  contempt  of  rule  and  regularity, 
neglect  of  reason  and  truth,  free  play  of  fancy  and  imagination, 
increased  mixture  of  tragedy  and  comedy,  no  regard  for  pro- 
priety of  speech  and  action,  and  mingling  of  all  styles. 

The  spirit  of  license  and  irregularity  displayed  by  Hardy 
and  his  school  could  not  but  displease  a  public  whose  ideal 
now  lay  in  order  and  regularity. 

In  the  preface  to  Sylvanire  (1629),  a  tragi-comedy,  Jean 
Mairet  (1604-1686),  at  first  an  adherent  of  Hardy,  formu- 
lated the  doctrine  of  the  "Three  Unities".  In  1634,  two 
years  before  Corneille's  Cid,  the  first  tragic  masterpiece 
in  French  literature,  Mairet  applied  the  rules  in  his  tragedy 
of  Sophonisbe,  which  inaugurated  the  classical  tragedy  of 
France  on  the  popular  stage,  and  which  marks  the  begin- 
ning of  a  new  era  in  French  dramatic  literature.  A  noted 
French  theatrical  critic  has  said  of  the  play:  "La  tragedie 
de  Mairet  est  loin  d'etre  un  chef-d'oeuvre;  mais  elle  a  mtriU  d'etre 
regardte  toujours  comme  notre  plus  ancienne  tragedie  classique. 
Avec  cette  piece  ttait  fondd  ce  genre  dramatique  destine  a  une 
carriere  illustre,  quoique  courte.  Les  traits  essentiels  du  genre 
etaient  trouve"s;  la  noblesse  du  style,  V exclusion  absolue  du  comique, 
le  raffinement  dans  I' analyse  et  I 'expression  des  sentiments;  la 
tendance  oratoire  dans  le  langage,  la  simplification  et  I'arrangement 
logique  de  I' intrigue;  la  conception  dbstraite  et  puissante  des  carac- 
teres.  Les  regies  Maient  observes,  un  peu  moins  rigoureuses,  mais 
telles  au  fond  que  Chapelain  allait  les  imposer  bientdt  a  Corneille" 

The  Rules  of  the  Three  Unities. — Before  passing  on,  it  is 
necessary  to  discuss  fully  those  three  famous  Eules  which, 
from  Mairet's  day  up  to  the  beginning  of  the  present  century, 
came  to  be  regarded  in  France  as  the  laws  of  a  literary 


108  SEVENTEENTH   CENTURY — FIRST   PERIOD 

species.     The   so-called   three   Rules   of   Unity  are   those  of 
Action,  Time,  and  Place. 

Briefly  stated,  these  rules  enjoined  that  there  should  be 
only  one  action  or  plot  in  a  play,  that  the  action  should  take 
place  entirely  within  the  space  of  twenty-four  hours,  and  that 
the  scene  of  the  action  should  be  the  same  throughout  the 
play.1  According  to  the  critics  of  the  16th  and  of  the  17th 
century,  these  Rules  found  their  justification  in  the  Poetics  of 
Aristotle,  a  pretension  which  is  absolutely  false.  The  Unity 
of  Action,  without  which  it  would  be  impossible  to  write  a 
good  play,  is  the  only  one  of  the  three  which  is  formulated  in 
the  Poetics.  Of  the  Unity  of  Time  all  Aristotle  says  is,  when 
comparing  Epic  poetry  with  Tragedy,  that  the  latter  "en- 
deavours as  far  as  possible  to  confine  itself  to  a  single  revolu- 
tion of  the  sun,  or  but  slightly  to  exceed  this  limit;  whereas 
the  Epic  action  has  no  limits  of  time".  Thus  Aristotle,  far 
from  laying  down  a  hard-and-fast  rule,  only  gives  a  piece  of 
information;  and  in  addition  to  this,  it  should  not  be  forgotten 
that  the  action  in  Greek  plays  was  naturally  much  simpler, 
and  that  the  Greeks  themselves  often  did  not  observe  the 
twenty -four  hours'  limit.  /  As  for  the  Unity  of  Place,  it  is  a 
pure  invention,  about  which  we  find  not  a  word  either  in 
Horace  or  Aristotle,  and  which  only  took  equal  importance 
with  the  other  two  at  a  much  later  date,  and  seems  at  first  to 
have  been  neglected. 

A  considerable  controversy  arose  during  the  16th  and  at  the 
beginning  of  the  17th  century  over  these  rules,  the  classicists 
upholding  them  and  the  romanticists  opposing  them.  Finally 
the  classicists  triumphed,  owing  largely  to  the  influence  of 
Richelieu,  and  Chapelain,  his  right-hand  man  in  literary  matters. 

The  most  important  data  to  be  observed  in  the  history  of 
the  struggle  are  the  following: — 

1549.— The  Pl&ade  adopted  the  precepts  of  Aristotle.    These  precepts 

replaced  the  previous  theories  of  Fabri's  PMtorique  (1544)  and  of  Sibilet's 

1  Cp.  Boileau,  Art  Po&ique  (iii.  45  and  46): — 

"  Qu'en  un  lieu,  qu'en  un  jovr,  un  seul  fait  accompli, 
Tienne  jusqu'a  la  fin  le  thi&trc  rempli". 


DRAMA  109 

Art  Poetique  (1548),  which  give  little  more  than  the  rules  of  old  French 
poetry  (ballads,  rondeaux,  virelais,  &c.). 

1561.— Scaliger  in  his  Latin  Poctices  supplied  a  full  commentary  on 
Aristotle's  Poetics,  and  in  consequence  all  16th-century  writers  knew 
Aristotle  largely. 

Scaliger  says  that  music  is  not  essential,  but  he  is  inconsistent,  for  he 
did  not  recommend  the  dropping  of  the  choruses.  He  declares  further 
that  the  style  must  be  sublime,  that  tragedy  must  represent  the  higher 
ranks  of  life,  and  have  incidents  more  important  than  those  of  comedy; 
that  the  action  must  be  completed  in  six  or  eight  hours,  and  that  a  play 
must  be  divided  into  five  acts.  He  gives  no  definite  rule  about  the  Unity 
of  Place,  although  he  does  not  find  it  reasonable  that  a  person  should  be 
made  to  go  from  Thebes  to  Athens  in  a  few  minutes.  Like  all  the  par- 
tisans of  the  Unities,  he  treated  them  as  a  question  of  verisimilitude. 

1562. — GreVin,  in  the  preface  to  the  Mart  de  Cesar,  recommends  that 
music  should  be  banished,  and  that  ^Eschylus,  Euripides,  and  Sophocles 
should  be  taken  as  models. 

1572. — Jean  de  la  Taille,  in  the  preface  to  Saul,  was  the  first  rigorously 
to  formulate  the  three  Rules  of  the  Unities:  "  II  faut  toujours  reprl- 
senter  I'histoire  ou  le  jeu  en  un  mime  jour,  en  un  meme  temps,  et  un  m£me 
lieu". 

1573. — Ronsard,  in  the  preface  to  the  Franciade,  recommends  that 
the  action  of  a  tragedy  or  comedy  should  take  place  within  the  space 
of  twenty-four  hours. 

Among  those  who  wrote  against  or  did  not  observe  the  Rules  are: — 

1582. — Jean  de  Beaubreuil,  who  in  the  preface  to  Regulus  objects  to 
the  Unity  of  Time. 

1598. — Pierre  de  Laudun  Daigaliers,  who,  in  his  Art  Po&ique  Fran- 
qais,  rejects  the  Unity  of  Time  on  the  ground  that  if  it  is  observed  we 
only  get  incredible  actions  and  no  better  tragedies. 

1628. — Francis  Ogier,  in  the  preface  to  Jean  de  Schelandre's  Tyr 
et  Sidon,  where  he  defends  his  friend  for  having  rejected  the  rules,  and 
blended  together  tragedy  and  comedy. 

Every  nation,  says  Ogier,  has  its  own  particular  taste,  and  it  is  the 
duty  of  poets  to  adapt  themselves  to  it ;  the  French  are  impatient,  desire 
novelty  and  variety,  and  are  wearied  by  long  reports  of  messengers  and 
long  tirades.  The  Greeks  had  special  reasons  for  keeping  their  style,  the 
chief  being  that  it  formed  part  of  their  religion,  although  it  cannot  be 
denied  that  they  crowded  into  one  day  more  than  is  reasonable.  There- 
fore the  modern  dramatist  should  give  up  the  Unities,  replace  reports 
by  action,  and  mix  tragedy  and  comedy,  since  real  life  is  made  up  of 
laughter  and  tears. 

We  have  already  noticed  that  none  of  the  authors  of  the  popular 
drama,  which  flourished  during  the  first  thirty  years  of  the  17th  century, 


110  SEVENTEENTH   CENTURY—  FIRST   PERIOD 

observed  the  Rules.     To  their  excessive  irregularity  was  due  the  victory 
of  the  Rules,  Racan,  for  example,  giving  actions  which  last  for  years. 

After  1625  they  were  acted  upon  by  some  dramatists;  in  1629  they 
were  formulated  by  Mairet  in  the  preface  to  Sylvanire,  and  applied  five 
years  after  by  the  same  poet  in  the  tragedy  of  Sophonisbc  (1634).  In 
1635  Richelieu  was  converted.  Thanks  to  his  influence  and  the  advo- 
cacy of  Chapelain  the  Rules  finally  prevailed,  and  afterwards  came  to 
be  looked  upon  as  essential  in  every  tragedy  or  comedy  worthy  of  the 
name. 

Pierre  Corneille  is  the  father  of  French  classical  tragedy  as 
it  occupied  the  stage  for  two  centuries.  If  not  the  greatest 
he  is  the  first  in  time  of  the  galaxy  that  make  the  literary 
glory  of  the  age  of  Louis  XIV,  though  his  best  work  was  done 
before  the  advent  of  that  monarch. 

*JL  Pierre  Corneille  was  born  in  1606  at  Rouen.  The  history  of  his  life, 
if  one  separates  it  from  the  history  of  his  plays,  is  of  little  importance. 
He  was  the  eldest  son  of  Pierre  Corneille,  maitre  dcs  eaux  ct  forets  at 
Rouen.  From  1615  he  frequented  the  Jesuit  college  of  his  native  town, 
where  he  distinguished  himself  by  skill  in  Latin  verse  composition. 
*  After  leaving  the  college  he  studied  law,  and  was  admitted  to  the  bar  in 
1624,  though  it  is  doubtful  whether  he  ever  pleaded,  and  accident  co- 
operated with  genius  to  turn  him  to  dramatic  work.  His  first  play  was 
the  comedy  of  MAlte,  acted  at  Paris  in  1629,  which  proved  a  great 
success.  For  a  time  Corneille  belonged  to  the  band  of  poets  (La  Societd 
dcs  Cinq  Auteurs)  employed  by  Cardinal  Richelieu  to  work  out  his 
dramatic  plans,  but  not  possessing  the  esprit  de  suite  which  the  cardinal 
required  of  his  poets  he  soon  withdrew  from  his  service,  and  with  only 
one  long  interruption  devoted  the  whole  of  his  life  to  dramatic  art. 

After  the  failure  of  his  last  play,  Surdna  (1674),  he  retired  from  the 
stage  for  good,  and  died  at  Paris  in  1684,  a  poor  man,  "  saoul  de  gloire  et 
affatni  d' argent",  as  he  one  day  said  to  Boileau.  A  dramatist,  however 
prolific,  could  not  live  in  those  days  on  the  proceeds  of  his  plays;  patrons, 
too,  were  stingy,  and  the  grants  allowed  him  by  Louis  XIV  were  small 
and  spasmodic.  He  might  have  added  to  his  incomings,  as  all  his 
brother-playwrights  did,  by  writing  flattering  dedications  and  nicely 
turned  occasional  verse,  but  he  was  not  gifted  in  that  direction,  and  his 
upright  character  spurned  such  means. 

The  plays  of  Corneille  fall  naturally  into  three  periods. 

(a)  During  the  first  (1629-1636)  he  wrote  almost  nothing 
but  comedies.  Apart  from  Mclite  (1629)  he  composed  Clitandre 
(1632),  La  Veuve  (1633),  La,  Galerie  du  Palais  (1633),  La  Sui- 


DRAMA 

(1634),  ia  PZace  Hoy  ale  (1634),  and  L'  Illusion  Comique 
(1636).  All  these  early  comedies  owe  nothing  to  foreign 
writers;  they  consist  of  incidents  taken  from  everyday  life 
and  but  slightly  romanced,  written  in  a  language  which  is  a 
perfect  imitation  of  that  of  the  prfcieuses.  To  this  period 
belongs  also  Medee  (1635),  taken  from  Seneca  and  Euripides, 
the  best  tragedy  up  to  that  time. 

(b)  The  second  period  (1636-1651),  consisting  mainly  of 
tragedies,  opens  with  Le  Cid  (1636),  which  placed  Corneille  at 
once  above  all  his  predecessors  and  contemporaries.     This  was 
followed  by  four  tragedies  of  great  beauty:  Horace  (1640), 
Cinna  (1640),  Polyeucte  (1640),  and  Pompde  (1641),  which  along 
with  the  Cid  may  be  accounted  Corneille's  masterpieces.    Then 
came  Le  Menteur  (1642),  the  best  comedy  previous  to  Moliere, 
the  first  French  comedy  of  character,  and  the  first  French 
comedy  written  in  polite  language,  without  low  wit  or  inde- 
cency.    The  next  year  (1643)  appeared  La  Suite  du  Menteur, 
the  same  high  standard  hardly  being  maintained.     Then  Cor- 
neille's productions  become  weaker.     In  1644  Rodogune  ap- 
peared, and,  although  it  was  preferred  b}7  the  author  himself 
to  any  of  his  plays,  much  of  the  pleasure  we  experience  in 
reading  it  is  spoiled  by  the  highly  improbable,  at  times  almost 
ridiculous,  situations  it  contains.     Yet  it  deserves  special  men- 
tion on  account  of  the  fifth  scene,  one  of  the  finest  in  French 
drama.     Rodogune  was  followed  by  Theodore  (1645),  a  story  of 
Christian  martyrdom   much   inferior   to   Polyeucte;   Htraclius 
(1647),  containing  much  fine  poetry,  but  marred  by  a  still 
greater  complication  of  argument  than  in  Bodogunt,  and  by  the 
blustering   part  of  Pulcherie;    the  operatic  play  Andromkde 
(1650),  based  on  Ovid;  and  the  two  tragi-comedies,  Don  Sanche 
(1650)  and  Nicomede  (1651),  the  last  two  superior  pieces  of 
the  dramatist. 

(c)  The  third  period  (1652-1674)  comprises  the  plays  of  his 
old  age  and  decadence.      The  first  is  Pertharite  (1652),  the 
failure  of  which  caused  Corneille  to  abandon  dramatic  poetry 
for  six  years,  and  devote  himself  to  a  translation  into  French 
verse  of  the  Imitatio  Christi.     In  1659  Fouquet,  the  Maecenas 


112  SEVENTEENTH   CENTURY  —  FIRST   PERIOD 

of  the  time,  persuaded  him  to  alter  his  resolution,  and  (Edipe, 
a  play  which  became  a  great  favourite  with  Louis  XIV,  was 
the  result.  Then  came  in  rapid  succession  the  Toison  d'Or 
(1660),  Sertorius  (1662),  Sophonisbe  (1663),  and  Othon  (1664), 
plays  of  little  merit;  Agtsilas  (1666)  and  Attila  (1667),  killed 
and  buried  by  Boileau's  cruel  epigram  — 

"  Apres  Agdsttas, 


Mais  apres  V  Attila, 
Hold/" 

Tile  d  Btrtnice  (1672),  written  in  competition  with  Racine's 
Btrtnice,  although  unknowingly;  PulcMrie  (1672)  and  Surtna 
(1674),  two  signal  failures. 

We  will  now  pass  on  to  consider  Corneille's  masterpieces 
at  greater  length. 

The  first  great  play  of  Corneille,  and  indeed  of  the  whole 
theatre  of  France,  is  Le  Cid  (1636),  a  skilful  adaptation  of  a 
play  by  the  Spanish  poet  Guillem  de  Castro. 

St  The  plot  is  briefly  as  follows  :  —  Don  Roderigo  (surnamed  the  "  Cid  " 
or  "  Lord  "  by  the  Moors  he  has  conquered)  is  in  love  with  Chimene, 
the  daughter  of  Don  Gomez,  Count  de  Gormas,  and  has  been  accepted 
as  her  suitor.  The  aged  Don  Diego  Roderigo's  father,  who  has  just 
been  appointed  governor  to  the  king's  son,  asks  Don  Gomez  to  give 
his  daughter's  hand  to  his  son.  Don  Gomez,  jealous  of  the  honour  won 
by  Don  Diego,  refuses  his  consent  and  openly  insults  the  old  man. 
Roderigo's  father,  in  his  powerlessness,  appeals  to  his  son  for  revenge: 
"  Venge-moi,"  he  cries,  "  venge  mon  honneur  et  le  tien,  va  provoquer  le  pere 
de  Chimene". 

Roderigo  obeys  his  aged  father's  bidding,  defies  Don  Gomez  and  kills 
him.  Thereupon  Chimene,  in  spite  of  her  love  for  Roderigo,  appeals  to 
the  king  to  avenge  her  father's  death.  In  the  meantime  Roderigo  has 
saved  Sevilla,  threatened  by  the  Moors,  and  the  king  can  no  longer 
punish  the  hero  who  has  rendered  him  such  signal  service.  Then  Chi- 
mene appeals  to  the  king's  courtiers,  and  promises  her  hand  to  the  knight 
who  will  bring  back  to  her  Roderigo's  head.  Don  Sancho,  Roderigo's 
rival,  accepts  the  offer,  but  is  vanquished  and  spared  by  his  generous  foe. 
Presently  Don  Sancho  appears  and  lays  his  sword  at  the  feet  of  Chimene, 
who,  believing  that  he  has  conquered,  curses  him  and  openly  declares  her 
love  for  Roderigo.  Finally  she  learns  the  truth,  but  is  still  doubtful 
whether  she  ought  to  accept  the  hand  of  a  man  who  had  so  lately  killed 


DRAMA  113 

her  father.  After  some  debating  the  king  advises  her  to  take  a  year  to 
consider  the  matter,  and  as  she  makes  no  objection  to  this  proposal  we 
may  take  it  for  granted  that  in  the  end  the  two  lovers  are  united. 

The  success  of  Le  Cid  was  so  great  that  all  dramatic 
authors,  save  the  honest  Rotrou,  rose  against  Corneille.  The 
obscure  Claveret  accused  him  of  plagiarism,  and  Scudery 
launched  his  Observations  sur  le  Cid,  in  which  he  tried  to 
demonstrate  that  the  play  was  worthless.  No  principle,  no 
doctrine  of  art,  was  at  stake.  It  was  purely  a  case  of  jealousy, 
and  among  the  jealous  was  Cardinal  Eichelieu,  who  posed  as 
an  author.  He  was  also  angry  with  Corneille  for  having 
introduced  duelling  into  the  play  at  a  time  when  he  was 
striving  hard  to  repress  it,  and  for  glorifying  Spain  at  an 
inopportune  moment.  He  consequently  determined  to  put 
an  end  to  the  quarrel  concerning  the  Cid,  by  pressing  the 
Academy  to  draw  up  its  Sentiments  sur  la  Tragi-Comtdie  du 
Cid.  Chapelain  was  approved  as  a  fit  person  to  do  so.  The 
Academy  found  fault  with  the  violation  of  dramatic  proprie- 
ties, but  could  not  deny  the  author's  genius,  while  public 
opinion  was  too  strong  for  the  cardinal  and  his  friends,  and 
maintained  its  original  verdict.  To  quote  the  hackneyed  lines 
of  Boileau: 

"  En  vain  contre  le  Cid  un  ministre  se  ligue; 
Tout  Paris  pour  Chim&ne  a  les  yeux  de  Rodrigue  ". 

Nevertheless  Corneille,  who  had  shown  a  tendency  towards  a 
freer  dramatic  system  and  a  return  to  Spain,  seems  to  have 
been  very  much  impressed  by  the  Sentiments  de  V  Acad&mie, 
and  after  a  retirement  of  several  years,  we  see  him  return  to 
regular  tragedy  and  antique  subjects.  In  Horace  (1640), 
based  on  Livy's  account  of  the  combat  between  the  Horatii 
and  Curiatii,  Corneille's  main  object  was  to  depict  the  sub- 
limity of  Roman  patriotism,  and  its  triumph  over  the  passion 
of  love,  which  the  poet  henceforth  will  always  sacrifice  to 
honour  or  to  duty.  In  Le  Cid,  Chimene  had  finally  pardoned 
after  a  struggle,  and  love  had  gained  the  upper  hand.  In 
Horace,  Camille,  the  betrothed  of  Curiatius,  curses  her  brother 

(M643)  H 


114  SEVENTEENTH  CENTURY— FIRST  PERIOD 

Horace,  the  conqueror  of  her  lover;  s>he  is  stabbed  to  death  by 
Horace,  and  Horace  is  absolved. 

In  Cinna  (1640),  Corneille  dramatized  the  conspiracy  against 
the  emperor  Augustus  as  related  by  Seneca. 

it  Cinna,  grandson  of  Pompey,  is  enamoured  of  Emilie,  but  she  will  only 
consent  to  marry  him  if  he  takes  revenge  on  Augustus,  her  father's  mur- 
derer. Cinna  agrees,  and  forms  a  plot  to  kill  the  emperor  and  restore 
the  republic.  Presently  Maxime,  who  also  loves  Emilie,  reveals  the 
conspiracy  through  motives  of  jealousy.  Cinna,  summoned  before  the 
emperor,  seeing  all  is  lost,  prepares  to  meet  his  doom,  but  finally  the 
emperor,  after  an  inward  struggle,  resolves  to  extend  his  pardon  to  all 
the  conspirators.  Cinna  and  Emilie,  touched  by  so  much  magnanimity, 
melt  into  tears  and  swear  eternal  friendship  to  the  emperor. 

The  subject  of  Pompte  (1641)  is  taken  from  the  Pharsalia  of 
Lucan.  Despite  several  impressive  scenes,  such  as  the  one 
where  Cornelia,  Pompey's  widow,  reveals  to  Caesar,  her  enemy, 
the  plot  hatched  against  him,  the  play  is  not  free  from  the 
excessive  declamation  and  bombast  of  Corneille's  model.  But 
of  all  Corneille's  plays  the  one  in  which  he  followed  most 
closely  the  classical  dramatic  system  is  Polyeude,  performed 
at  the  end  of  1642  or  early  in  1643.  A  story  of  Christian 
martyrdom  was  a  bold  venture,  and  when  the  play  was  read 
at  the  Hotel  de  Rambouillet,  "the  Christianity  was  found 
extremely  displeasing "  to  people  who  thought  heathenism 
good  enough  for  literature,  a  view  which,  as  we  shall  see,  was 
also  shared  by  Boileau. 

^  The  scene  of  Polycuctc  is  laid  in  Melitene,  the  capital  of  Armenia,  in 
'  the  palace  of  Felix  the  Roman  governor.  The  events  are  supposed  to 
take  place  in  the  year  250  A.D.  Christianity  has  penetrated  into  the 
Roman  empire,  but  is  still  persecuted.  Felix  has  given  his  daughter 
Pauline  in  marriage  to  a  rich  nobleman  of  the  name  of  Polyeuctes,  after 
having  refused  her  hand  to  Severus,  a  man  of  small  fortune  and  of  no 
position.  In  the  meantime  Polyeuctes  has  become  a  convert  to  the 
Christian  faith,  and  in  the  midst  of  a  solemn  sacrifice  in  the  temple, 
along  with  his  friend  Nearchus,  pulls  down  the  altars  of  the  false  gods. 
Nearchus  is  condemned  to  death,  and  meets  his  fate  without  a  murmur. 
Polyeuctes  is  thrown  into  chains,  and  all  means  are  used  to  make  him 
repent  his  rash  deed  ;  but  the  prayers  of  Felix  and  the  supplications  of 
Pauline  are  all  in  vain.  Pauline,  who  loves  Severus  in  the  bottom  of  her 


DRAMA  115 

heart,  is  none  the  less  devoted  to  her  husband ;  she  urges  Severus,  who 
has  meanwhile  risen  to  high  honours,  to  intercede  in  favour  of  Poly- 
euctes,  telling  him  that  were  she  to  become  a  widow,  she  will  never 
consent  to  become  his  wife.  Severus  does  as  he  is  bid,  but  all  his  efforts 
prove  useless ;  Polyeuctes  by  order  of  Felix  is  led  out  to  meet  his  doom, 
and  by  his  glorious  end  wins  Pauline  for  God : 

"  Mon  epoux  en  mourant  m'a  laisse"  ses  lumieres, 
Son  sang  dont  tes  bourreaux  viennent  de  me  couvrir 
M'a  dessilU  les  yeux,  et  me  les  vient  d'ouvrir. 
Je  vois,  je  sais,  je  crois,  je  suis  desabusee, 
Je  suis  chrttienne  enftn  .  .  ." 

Corneille's  imagination  was  distinguisned  by  a  leaning 
towards  the  extraordinary  which  was  natural  to  him,  and 
at  the  same  time  encouraged  by  the  agitated  period  in  which 
he  lived.  His  characters  are  not  ordinary  men  and  women 
but  heroes  and  heroines,  who,  sacrificing  their  natural  im- 
pulses, find  the  expression  of  their  heroism  in  the  triumph  of 
the  will  over  all  obstacles  that  interfere  with  its  development : 

11  Je  suis  matfre  de  moi  comme  de  Vunivers. 

Je  le  suis,  je  veux  Vetre  "  ( Auguste  in  Cinna). 
"  Qu'importe  de  mon  cceur,  si  je  sais  mon  devoir  " 

(Aristie  in  Sertorius). 
" .  .  .  Je  suis  fort  peu  de  chose, 
Mais  enfin  de  mon  cceur  moi-mUme  je  dispose  " 

(Dirce  in  (Edipe). 

Or  the  characteristic  lines  in  Agdsilas: 

'  Un  roi  nt  pour  l'e"clat  des  grandes  actions 

Dompte  jusqu'a  ses  passions, 
Et  ne  se  croit  point  roi,  s'il  ne  fait  sur  lui-me'me 
Le  plus  illustre  essai  de  son  pouvoir  supreme  ". 

Hence  Corneille's  fondness  for  improbable  and  complicated 
situations,  on  the  ground  that  the  greater  the  difficulties  to 
surmount,  the  more  heroic  the  character  will  be;  hence  the 
comparative  absence  of  psychology,  due  to  the  fact  that  he 
often  invented  or  adapted  a  situation  and  afterwards  created 
his  characters  to  suit  it,  instead  of  leaving  them  to  develop 
naturally ;  and  hence  also  his  contempt  for  the  passion  of  love, 
which  he  regarded  as  unworthy  of  occupying  the  first  place  in 


116  SEVENTEENTH   CENTURY — FIRST   PERIOD 

a  tragedy:  "  J'ai  cru  jusqu'ici",  Corneille  writes  to  his  friend 
St.  Evremont,  "  que  I'amour  Mail  une  passion  trop  chargte  de  fai- 
blesse  pour  Ure  la  dominanle  dans  une  pikce  tragique  ". 

In  his  old  age  these  peculiarities  became  more  marked,  and 
to  such  an  extent  as  to  become  serious  defects.  His  heroes' 
will  is  glorified  for  its  own  sake;  formerly  they  had  triumphed 
over  their  passions  after  a  struggle,  now  they  cannot  fail  or 
falter.  Love  after  having  been  banished  from  his  tragedies 
is  reintroduced  in  the  guise  of  the  most  frigid  gallantry;  his 
nobility  and  elevation  degenerate  into  affectation  and  bombast, 
and  the  bent  of  his  imagination  takes  the  altered  shape  of  a 
mania  for  unreasoned  inventions,  innovations,  and  complica- 
tions. 

In  his  best  tragedies,  Corneille's  characters  have  the  sim- 
plicity and  grandeur  of  magnificent  statues,  but  also  some- 
thing of  their  immobility.  From  their  very  conception  they 
arouse  admiration  rather  than  pity  or  fear;  but,  although  the 
inflexible  self-reliance  with  which  they  meet  their  doom  is  at 
times  apt  to  pall,  yet  all  praise  is  due  to  the  author  for  having 
proposed  to  humanity  so  sublime  and  noble  an  ideal. 

When  at  his  best,  nobody,  perhaps,  has  ever  written  in 
verse  better  than  Corneille ;  the  virile  eloquence  of  his  verse 
is  unsurpassed,  as  are  his  swift  replies  line  by  line,  but  he  was 
not  always  inspired,  and  Moliere  was  right  when  he  said: 
"  My  friend  Corneille  has  a  familiar  spirit,  who  inspires  him 
with  the  finest  verse  in  the  world;  but  sometimes  the  spirit 
deserts  him,  and  then  it  fares  ill  with  him". 

Second  only  to  Corneille  as  a  playwright  stands  Jean 
Rotrou  (1609-1650),  his  friend  and  one  of  the  "five  authors" 
employed  by  Eichelieu.  In  his  youth,  impatient  of  restraint 
and  unwilling  to  submit  to  the  rules  of  classical  tragedy,  he 
squandered  his  talent  in  comedies  and  extravagant  tragi- 
comedies, but  with  years  he  learnt  much  from  his  great  con- 
temporary, and  before  his  death  he  had  written  four  pieces, 
two  of  which,  Saint  Genest  (1646)  and  Venceslas  (1647),  are  at 
least  equal  to  Corneille's  tragedies  of  the  second  class.  Saint 
Genest,  imitated,  but  in  no  servile  manner,  from  the  Spaniard 


PROSE  117 

Lope  de  Vega,  is  one  of  the  most  striking  plays  of  the  17th 
century.  It  is  the  story  of  an  actor  who,  playing  the  part  of 
a  Christian  martyr  before  the  emperor  Diocletian,  is  suddenly 
penetrated  by  divine  grace,  proclaims  himself  a  Christian,  and 
suffers  martyrdom.  Interwoven  with  the  story  is  some  amus- 
ing by-play  depicting  contemporary  theatrical  life.  Venceslas, 
his  masterpiece,  represents  in  true  Corneillian  style  the  inward 
struggle  of  a  king  constrained  to  choose  between  duty  and 
parental  affection. 

Other  plays  of  Eotrou  that  will  repay  the  reader  are :  Lame 
Persecute  (1637);  Don  Bernard  de  Calrere  (1647),  his  best 
tragi-comedy;  and  Cosroes  (1649). 

Rotrou  is  an  unequal  and  careless  writer,  but  when  in  his 
happiest  mood,  he  has  a  lyrical  note,  absent  in  all  the  drama- 
tists  of  the  17th  century,  which  faintly  recalls  Shakespeare. 


CHAPTER   III 

PROSE 

Might  not  spiritual  truth  be  made  more  attractive  to  mun- 
dane society  if  presented  in  its  most  gracious  and  pleasing 
aspect?  Such  was  the  question  that  Francois  de  Sales 
(1567-1622),  Bishop  of  Geneva,  proposed  to  answer  in  the 
affirmative  when,  at  the  king's  request,  he  published  a  collec- 
tion of  spiritual  letters  addressed  to  a  relative,  under  the  title 
of  L?  Introduction  a  la  Fie  Dfoote  (1609).  De  Sales  saw  that  it 
would  be  futile  to  require  from  people  "qui  vivent  parmi  le 
monde  et  les  covrs  "  the  sum  of  Christian  renunciation  and  self- 
denial  ;  imperfection  is  man's  lot,  "  et  nous  ne  pouvons  oiler  sans 
toucher  terre",  yet,  though  he  may  have  strewn  the  path  to 
heaven  with  roses,  under  the  angelic  bishop's  docility  and 
sweetness  there  lay  strength.  "Suaviter  in  modo,  fortiter  in 
re "  might  have  been  his  motto.  Never  was  style  more  in 
keeping  with  the  man — flowery  and  mystical,  yet  insinuating. 

The  long  reign  of  the  pi-ecieuses  had  been  prepared,  as  we 


118  SEVENTEENTH   CENTURY— FIRST   PERIOD 

have  noticed,  by  a  novel  which  for  a  long  time  enjoyed  a 
success  as  prodigious  as  almost  any  in  literary  history.  This 
famous  book  was  the  pastoral  romance  of  Astrde,  by  Honor e 
d'Urfe  (1568-1625),  composed  of  five  volumes,  published  at 
different  times  from  1610  to  1627,  and  comprising  over  five 
thousand  pages.  Even  at  a  time  when  the  Astrtfe  had  lost 
its  popularity  Mme  de  Sevign^  did  not  hesitate  to  acknow- 
ledge her  weakness  for  it,  and  the  great  La  Fontaine  could 

write: 

"  EtwnJt,  petit  gc.rfon  je  lisais  son  roman, 
Et  je  le  Us  encore  ayant  la  barbe  grise  ". 

D'Urfd's  immediate  model  was  the  Diana  (1542)  of  the 
Spaniard  Montemayor,  who  himself  had  imitated  largely  the 
Italians  Sannazaro  (Arcadia),  Tasso  (Aminta),  and  Guarini 
(Pastor  Fido). 

The  scene  of  the  A&tri.e  is  laid  in  the  fields  of  D'Urfe's  native  Forez 
on  the  banks  of  the  Lignon,  in  Merovingian  antiquity.  The  shepherd 
Celadon,  banished  by  his  beloved  Astre"e  on  suspicion  of  faithlessness,  in 
his  despair  throws  himself  into  the  waters  of  the  Lignon ;  saved  by  the 
nymphs  he  resists  the  love  of  the  Princess  Galatea,  but  does  not  dare  to 
appear  before  Astree  as  long  as  she  has  not  revoked  her  order  of  banish- 
ment, which  she  finally  consents  to  do,  but  only  at  the  end  of  the  fifth 
volume.  The  two  lovers  are  united  in  marriage,  and  the  banks  of  the 
Lignon  become  a  scene  of  universal  joy. 

But  the  main  plot  is  often  only  an  excuse  for  numerous 
historical  episodes,  contemporary  allusions,  and  gallant  con- 
versations, in  which  the  different  varieties  of  love  are  depicted 
and  discussed  after  the  manner  of  the  amorous  casuistry  of  the 
fashionable  ladies  of  the  time. 

The  influence  of  preciosity,  combined  with  that  of  Spain  and 
of  the  political  events  of  the  time,  gave  rise  to  the  heroic- 
gallant  novel,  the  tradition  of  D'Urfe's  Astrte  combining  with 
that  of  the  older  Amadis.  The  shepherds  and  shepherdesses 
were  replaced  by  heroes  and  heroines,  clad  in  antique  garb; 
romantic  episodes  and  high  deeds  were  blended  with  disser- 
tations and  gallant  conversations  reflecting  the  social  ideal. 

Marin  le  Roy  de  Gomberville  (1599-1674)  in  Pdexandre  (1629-1637) 
unites  the  kind  of  motive  found  in  the  A  madis  with  geographical  interest. 


PROSE  119 

The  hero  wanders  over  the  whole  world  in  pursuit  of  those  who  dare  to 
sigh  for  the  love  of  the  fair  Alcidiane,  and  also  to  discover  the  mysterious 
island  on  which  the  princess  dwells.  In  that  way  we  are  taken  to 
Morocco,  the  Canary  Islands,  the  West  Indies,  &c. 

Gautier  de  Costes  de  la  Calprenede  (1609-1663),  in  Cassandre  (1642), 
Clfopdtre  (1647),  and  Faramond  (1661),  exhibits  a  kind  of  universal  his- 
tory, the  dissolution  of  the  Macedonian  empire,  the  decline  of  Rome's 
power,  or  the  foundation  of  the  French  monarchy,  but  this  is  only  the 
background,  his  heroes  and  heroines  being  mere  idealizations  of  the  lords 
and  ladies  he  had  met  in  the  salons  of  Paris.  Like  all  these  prolix 
romances  those  of  De  la  Calprenede  are  unreadable  now,  although  his 
reputation  was  not  so  ephemeral  as  that  of  his  contemporaries,  and 
lasted  till  the  18th  century. 

Madeleine  de  Scudery's  (1607-1701)  two  chief  novels  are 
Artamene,ouLe  GrandCyrus  (1649-1653),  and  Cfe7te(1654-1661). 
Her  originality  consists  in  having  done  openly  and  knowingly 
what  her  predecessors  had  done  unconsciously.  To  the  adven- 
tures in  Polexandre  and  to  the  historical  details  in  CUopatre 
she  added  allusions  to  arid  portraits  of  the  men  and  women 
of  the  prfoieux  society  of  the  day.  Cyrus  is  none  other  than 
Conde;  Lydiane  is  Francoise  d'Aubigne,  the  future  Mme  de 
Main  tenon;  Mandane  is  the  Duchess  of  Longueville;  and  so 
forth.  By  attempting  to  study  the  curiosities  and  shades  of 
the  passion  of  love  Mile  de  Scudery  occasionally  succeeds  in 
analysis  of  character,  in  fact  her  novels,  especially  CUlie,  may 
be  said  to  foreshadow  the  psychological  novels  in  French 
literature. 

The  insipid  gallantry  and  the  high-pitched  emotions  of 
courtly  shepherdesses  and  pastoral  cavaliers  produced  a  natural 
reaction.  In  1622  Charles  Sorel  (1599-1674)  published  the 
Histoire  Comique  de  Francion,  and  five  years  later  the  Berger 
Extravagant,  the  Don  Quixote  of  France,  which  recounts  the 
pastoral  follies  of  a  young  Parisian  bourgeois,  whose  head  has 
been  turned  by  the  fashionable  novels  of  the  day.  Another 
burlesque  of  the  heroic  novels  is  the  Roman  Comique  (1651)  of 
Paul  Scarron,  the  master  of  the  school  of  realism  in  the  17th 
century. 

The  greatest  of  the  literary  societies  of  France,  the  French 
Academy,  sprang  from  a  private  society  of  men  of  letters  at 


120  SEVENTEENTH   CENTURY — FIRST   PERIOD 

Paris,  which  about  the  year  1629  used  to  meet  at  the  house 
of  one  Conrart,  a  wit  and  scholar  of  the  time,  for  the  discussion 
of  literary  questions.  At  first  they  were  but  nine,  but  fresh 
members  were  added  by  degrees,  among  others  the  poet 
Boisrobert,  a  favourite  of  Richelieu,  who  was  kept  informed 
by  him  of  these  gatherings.  The  cardinal,  pleased  with  the 
account  of  the  society,  offered  his  protection  and  official 
recognition.  After  some  hesitation  they  accepted,  and  under 
the  title  of  Acadtmie  Franqaise  they  held  their  first  sitting  on 
March  13th,  1634;  but  the  Parliament  of  Paris  only  registered 
the  letters  patent  in  July,  1637,  and  that  only  on  an  express 
order  of  the  king,  and  on  the  condition  that  the  Academy 
should  meddle  with  nothing  but  the  embellishment  and  im- 
provement of  the  French  language.  From  the  outset  the 
number  of  members  was  raised  to  the  forty  at  which  it  has 
ever  since  remained,  and  each  week  one  of  the  members  was 
appointed  to  read  a  paper.  Their  chief  occupation,  however, 
was  the  compilation  of  a  dictionary,  which  has  become  famous 
under  the  name  of  Didionnaire  de  VAcadlmie,  and  of  which 
the  first  edition  appeared  in  1694. 

The  Academy  by  undertaking  its  dictionary,  and  projecting 
a  grammar,  took  away  from  polite  society  the  direction  of  the 
language,  although  its  object  was  the  same  as  that  of  the 
prdcieuses  and  their  followers.  The  efforts  of  both  tended  to 
make  the  language  gain  in  dignity  and  precision,  but  im- 
poverished it  by  the  elimination  of  its  picturesque  and  forceful 
elements. 

That  the  Academy  has  not  always  been  impartial  in  the 
election  of -its  members  will  be  evident  when  it  is  remembered 
that  neither  Descartes,  Pascal,  Moliere,  J.  J.  Rousseau,  Beau- 
marchais,  H.  de  Balzac,  Michelet,  nor  Beranger  ever  belonged 
to  it. 

It  received  much  help  from  Vaugelas  (1585-1650),  one  of 
its  early  members,  who  had  the  reputation  at  the  time  of 
knowing  his  own  language  better  than  any  man,  and  whose 
decisions  were  looked  upon  as  laws:  "Si  feliciU  n'est  pas  fran- 
$ais,"  wrote  Chapelain,  "  il  le  sera  I'anrite  prochaine.  M.  Vaugelas 


PROSE  121 

m'a  promis  de  ne  pas  lui  lire  contraire,  quand  nous  sotticiterons 
pour  lui" 

In  1647  he  published  his  Remargues  sur  la  Langue  Franpiise, 
which  served  as  a  guide  to  his  fellow-members  in  their  literary 
labours.  He  proposed  first  of  all  to  make  the  French  language 
"  vraiment  maitresse  chez  die,  et  de  la  nettoyer  des  ordures  qu'elle 
avail  contracts" ' ;  secondly,  he  asserted  that  the  test  of  correct 
language  is  the  manner  of  speaking  of  the  best  part  of  the 
court.  But  although  he  established  the  sovereignty  of  court 
usage  he  never  dreamt  of  shutting  the  door  upon  all  change; 
he  knew  and  declared  that  this  was  impossible.  His  object 
was  to  regulate  the  language,  to  give  it  stability  as  far  as 
essentials  only  are  concerned:  "Je  pose  des  principes,  qui 
n'auront  pas  moins  de  durde  que  noire  langue  et  noire  empire", 

One  of  the  most  famous  of  the  academicians  was  Jean  Louis 
Guez  de  Balzac  (1594-1654),  who  was  the  first  to  apply  to 
prose  the  principles  which  had  guided  Malherbe  in  verse. 
That  the  latter  was  a  poet  alone  explains  the  fact  that  his 
reputation  survived  that  of  Balzac. 

Balzac's  letters  and  political  treatises  were  admired  for  the 
pureness  of  their  eloquence  and  the  harmonious  cadence  of 
their  periods.  He  foreshadowed  to  a  great  extent  the  limpid, 
if  somewhat  colourless,  prose  of  the  classicists,  and  also  taught 
his  countrymen  the  art  of  being  eloquent  without  having  any- 
thing to  say.  If  Balzac  was  devoid  of  ideas  no  man  ever  had 
more  than  his  great  contemporary  and  friend  Rene  Descartes, 
the  founder  of  modern  philosophy,  as  opposed  to  scholastic 
disputes  and  subtleties,  from  whom  all  systematic  thinking  is 
professedly  derived. 

Jf'Descartes  was  born  at  La  Haye,  near  Tours,  on  the  31st  March, 
1596,  of  a  family  of  noble  rank.  When  eight  years  of  age  he  was  sent 
to  the  Jesuit  college  at  La  Fleche,  where  he  remained  for  eight  years. 
Dissatisfied  with  scholasticism,  and  eager  to  learn  from  life  and  the  close 
observation  of  men  what  he  had  been  unable  to  find  in  books,  he  deter- 
mined at  the  age  of  twenty-one  to  enlist  as  a  volunteer.  The  outbreak  of 
the  Thirty  Years'  War  soon  gave  him  plenty  of  employment.  First  he 
served  for  two  years  in  Holland,  then  he  passed  into  the  Catholic  army 
of  the  Duke  of  Bavaria.  On  the  approach  of  winter  the  army  was 


122  SEVENTEENTH  CENTURY— FIRST  PERIOD 

obliged  to  take  winter  quarters  at  Neuburg  on  the  Canute.  It  was 
there  that  he  conceived  for  the  first  time  the  principles  of  a  new  philo- 
sophical method  :  "  N'ayant  par  bonhcur  aucuns  soins  ni  passions  qui  me 
troublasscnt,  je  dcmeurais  tout  le  jour  cnfermd  seul  dans  un  poele  (room 
heated  by  a  stove)  ou  favais  tout  loisir  de  m'entretenir  de  mes  pens&s  ". 
In  consequence  he  left  the  army  in  1621,  travelling,  with  occasional 
residences  in  Paris,  till  1629,  when  he  returned  to  Holland,  where  for 
twenty  years  he  meditated  and  wrote,  often  shifting  his  residence,  but 
little  disturbed  save  by  the  controversies  of  philosophy  and  the  orthodox 
zeal  of  Dutch  theologians.  An  invitation  from  the  Queen  of  Sweden, 
who  desired  to  learn  his  philosophy  from  his  own  lips,  was  accepted  in 
1649.  The  rigour  of  a  northern  temperature,  combined  with  change  of 
habits,  proved  fatal  to  his  health,  and  he  died  at  Stockholm  of  inflamma- 
tion of  the  lungs  in  1650. 

His  chief  works  consist  (a)  of  the  Discours  de  la  Mtthode 
(1637),  the  first  philosophical  work  of  importance  written 
in  the  French  language;  (b)  of  the  posthumous  Traitt  des 
Passions  (1650),  also  in  the  vernacular;  (c)  of  the  Meditationes 
(1641)  and  Prindpia  (1044),  written  in  Latin. 

The  key  to  Descartes'  philosophical  method  is  contained 
in  the  famous  Discours  de  la  Mtthode,  which  must  have  been 
elaborated  between  the  dates  1619  (Neuburg)  and  1637 
(publication).  His  philosophy  has  its  starting-point  in  uni- 
versal doubt.  Everything  being  abandoned,  is  there  any 
possibility  of  finding  any  new  and  clear  foundation  from 
which  to  build  up  our  knowledge?  Evidently  in  the  fact  of 
doubt  alone.  What  is  doubt?  Doubt  is  an  act  of  thinking. 
Thinking  is  inconceivable  without  a  person  to  think.  Thus, 
doubt  implies  the  mental  existence  of  a  doubter,  and  the  famous 
Cartesian  proposition — Cogito,  ergo  sum,  "I  think,  therefore  I 
exist",  naturally  follows.  But  how  and  why  have  we  attained 
this  certainty  ?  Simply  because  we  perceive  it  so  clearly  and 
distinctly  that  its  denial  is  impossible.  Hence  follows  the  first 
and  fundamental  rule  of  Descartes'  philosophy — to  accept  as 
true  what  we  perceive  clearly  and  distinctly,  and  nothing 
beyond.  One  of  these  clear  and  distinct  perceptions  is  the 
idea  of  God  as  the  absolutely  Perfect  Being.  God  the  Perfect 
Being  cannot  deceive,  and  therefore  whatever  our  consciousness 
clearly  testifies  may  be  implicitly  believed.  Mind  or  spirit  is 


PROSE  123 

pure  consciousness,  and  matter  is  mere  extension;  these  attri- 
butes are  mutually  exclusive,  and  can  be  united  (as  in  man) 
only  through  the  intervention  of  God.  Animals  in  which  the 
rational  soul  is  absent  are  mere  automata. 

The  influence  of  Descartes'  ideas,  which  were  in  harmony 
with  those  of  his  time,  reacted  upon  the  literature  of  the  whole 
of  the  17th  century,  although  their  full  force  was  not  felt  till 
about  thirty  years  after  the  publication  of  the  Discours  de  la 
Methode.  The  orators  and  poets  of  the  second  half  of  the  cen- 
tury show  little  taste  for  the  picturesque  in  nature,  and  devote 
themselves  wholly  to  the  study  of  man.  This  is  partly  attrib- 
utable to  the  strictly  mechanical  view  of  nature  taught  by 
Descartes.  Like  him,  too,  the  writers  of  this  period  sought 
for  general  truths,  and  subordinated  imagination  to  reason. 
In  point  of  style  Descartes,  unlike  his  contemporaries,  is 
heedless  of  form.  He  has  made  little  progress  on  the  writers 
of  the  beginning  of  the  century,  yet  he  possesses  great  qualities 
as  a  writer — vigorous  precision,  clearness,  and  certain  flights 
of  the  imagination,  which  produce  all  the  more  effect  amid  the 
severe  lines  of  his  abstract  reasoning. 

By  far  the  greatest  writer  of  this  period  was  Blaise  Pascal. 
A  consideration  of  his  works  is  inseparable  from  the  history  of 
Port-Royal  and  of  Jansenism. 

Port-Royal  was  a  convent  of  Cistercian  nuns,  about  eight 
miles  from  Versailles.  It  was  founded  in  the  13th  century  for 
nuns  only,  but  soon  after  its  establishment  obtained  from  the 
Pope  the  privilege  of  receiving  such  members  of  the  laity  as 
should  desire  to  live  in  religious  retirement  without  being 
compelled  to  take  monastic  vows.  The  community  was  re- 
moved to  Paris  in  1626;  and  from  this  time  the  old  establish- 
ment of  "Port-Royal  des  Champs",  as  the  convent  near  Ver- 
sailles was  called,  was  exclusively  devoted  to  the  use  of  a  lay 
community.  This  community  soon  numbered  among  its  per- 
manent inmates  some  of  the  most  distinguished  scholars  of  the 
age,  Antoine  Arnauld  (1612-1694),  Le  Maistre,  Nicole,  Lance- 
lot, and  others.  Their  life  was  divided  between  study,  instruc- 
tion, and  manual  labour.  One  of  their  greatest  public  services 


124  SEVENTEENTH   CENTURY — FIRST   PERIOD 

was  the  foundation  of  a  famous  school,  for  which  they  prepared 
well-known  educational  books. 

Port-Royal,  however,  is  best  known  for  its  adhesion  to 
the  Jansenist  Movement.  In  1640  appeared  the  Avgustinus 
by  Cornelius  Jansen,  bishop  of  Ypres,  in  which,  resuming 
the  doctrines  of  St.  Augustine  against  the  Pelagians  and 
Semi-Pelagians,  he  repudiated  the  ordinary  Catholic  dogma 
of  the  freedom  of  the  will,  and  affirmed  that  man  was  pre- 
destined either  to  eternal  life  or  everlasting  damnation,  and 
that  he  could  only  be  saved  if  possessed  of  divine  grace. 
This  austere  doctrine,  which  is  practically  identical  with  that 
of  Calvin,  and  directly  opposed  to  the  more  worldly  and 
accommodating  system  of  the  Jesuits,  was  introduced  into 
Port-Royal  by  the  Abb£  de  St.  Cyran,  a  friend  of  Jansen. 
From  that  time  the  abbey  of  Port-Royal  became  the  fortress 
of  Jansenism  in  France,  and  in  the  great  controversy  which 
soon  afterwards  broke  out,  the  doctrines  of  the  famous  Dutch 
theologian  found  their  staunchest  adherents  and  supporters 
in  Antome  Arnauld  and  Pascal. 

\{  Blaise  Pascal  was  born  at  Clermont-Ferrand  in  1623.  His  precocity 
^  as  a  boy  was  extraordinary;  at  the  age  of  sixteen  he  had  written  a 
Treatise  on  Conic  Sections,  which  excited  the  admiration  of  Descartes. 
But  the  intensity  of  study,  preying  upon  a  nervous  constitution,  con- 
sumed his  health  and  strength;  at  an  early  age  he  suffered  from  tempo- 
rary paralysis.  When  about  twenty-three  he  fell  under  the  religious 
influence  of  St.  Cyran,  read  eagerly  in  the  writings  of  Jansen,  and  re- 
solved to  live  for  God  alone.  But  to  restore  his  health  he  was  urged  to 
seek  recreation,  and  by  degrees  the  interests  and  pleasures  of  the  world 
took  hold  upon  him;  from  1649-1653  he  lived  not  only  in  the  world,  but 
in  a  style  beyond  his  means.  However,  the  religious  spirit  was  still 
alive  in  his  heart,  and  needed  only  to  be  reawakened.  The  reawakening 
came  in  1654  through  his  sister  Jacqueline,  who  had  abandoned  the 
world  two  years  previously  and  entered  the  community  of  "Port-Royal". 
From  this  time  he  subjected  himself  to  the  most  rigid  mortification, 
self-denial,  and  absolute  obedience  to  his  spiritual  director.  He  joined 
"Port-Royal",  and  henceforth  till  his  death  in  1662  he  threw  himself 
with  passionate  devotion  into  its  cause. 

Apart  from  Pascal's  works  as  a  mathematician  and  a  physi- 
cist, his  two  great  works  are  the  Lettres  Provinciates  (1656-57) 
and  the  posthumous  Pensdes. 


PROSE  125 

Although  the  Augustinus  had  not  been  avowedly  written  as 
a  work  of  controversy,  but  simply  to  set  forth  the  doctrine  of 
St.  Augustine,  the  Jesuits  had  long  marked  Jansen  and  St. 
Cyran  as  theological  foes,  opposed  to  their  doctrines.  As  soon 
as  Jansen 's  book  appeared  it  was  received  with  loud  clamour, 
and  prohibited  by  a  decree  of  the  Inquisition  in  1641;  in  the 
following  year  it  was  condemned  in  general  terms  by  Urban 
VIII  in  the  bull  In  Eminenti.  On  the  other  side,  Arnauld,  the 
great  theologian  of  the  Port-Eoyalists,  wrote  an  apology  of 
Jansen  (1644),  and  a  second  apology  appeared  from  his  pen 
the  following  year.  The  Jesuits  determined  that  they  would 
not  be  beaten.  In  1653  five  propositions,  professedly  extracted 
from  Jansen's  Augustinus,  were  condemned  by  a  papal  bull. 
A  great  blow  had  been  struck,  and  the  insulting  triumph  of 
the  Jesuits  knew  no  bounds.  They  refused  absolution  to  the 
Due  de  Liancourt,  for  no  other  reason  but  that  he  was  on 
friendly  terms  with  Port-Royal,  and  had  refused  to  withdraw, 
at  their  demand,  his  granddaughter  from  its  protection.  In- 
dignant at  such  an  outrage,  Arnauld  rushed  anew  into  the 
controversy;  and  on  a  question  concerning  divine  grace  he 
was  condemned  in  1656  by  the  Sorbonne.  "You  who  are 
young,  clever,  and  inquiring,"  said  Arnauld  to  Pascal,  "you 
ought  to  do  something."  The  words  were  not  lost,  and  the 
next  day  he  produced  "A  Letter  written  to  a  Provincial  by 
one  of  his  Friends".  A  second  was  issued  a  few  days  later. 
These  flew  from  hand  to  hand,  and  the  fury  of  the  Jesuits 
was  boundless.  Never  before  had  been  seen  such  delicate  and 
scathing  irony,  such  incisive  argument  wedded  to  such  perfect 
felicity  of  phrase  and  rare  distinction  of  style. 

Of  the  eighteen  letters  which  make  up  the  Provinciates,  the 
first  three  and  the  last  three,  which  deal  with  the  affairs  of 
Arnauld  and  the  Sorbonne,  are  of  little  importance  as  compared 
to  the  twelve  intervening  letters,  in  which  Pascal  by  a  change 
of  tactics  set  up  the  real  and  fundamental  question :  the  ques- 
tion which  of  the  two  parties,  Jesuits  or  Jansenists,  would  in 
the  future  direct  public  opinion,  and  more  generally,  which  of 
the  two  moral  ideals,  the  worldly  or  the  intransigent,  would 


126  SEVENTEENTH   CENTURY — FIRST   PERIOD 

triumph.  These  letters  discuss  at  length  the  whole  subject  oi 
the  moral  theology  of  the  Jesuits,  with  all  its  subtle  equivo- 
cations and  casuistries  invented  for  the  extenuation  of  sin. 
They  constitute  the  most  powerful  blow  ever  directed  against 
their  order,  a  blow  from  which  it  has  never  fully  recovered. 

The  Provinciates  occupied  Pascal  till  the  spring  of  1657,  and 
during  the  following  year  he  began  to  busy  himself  with  a 
scheme  for  a  great  Apology  of  the  Christian  Religion.  Of 
this  projected  apology  Pascal  only  left  fragments,  known  as 
the  Pensles.  A  garbled  edition  appeared  in  1670,  but  it  was  not 
till  1844  that  an  authentic  text  was  issued.  Several  attempts 
to  reconstruct  the  plan  of  Pascal's  Apology  have  been  made 
in  vain,  but  the  main  outlines  of  his  thought  can  be  clearly 
discerned :  Man  is  so  constituted  that  he  can  never  be  satisfied 
until  he  rests  in  knowledge  of  the  truth.  But  man  is  a  compli- 
cated being,  an  incomprehensible  monster  made  up  of  good 
and  evil.  How  then  is  this  duplicity  of  human  nature  to  be 
solved  so  that  man  may  find  happiness  1  It  cannot  be  solved 
by  the  two  great  opposing  systems  of  philosophy  at  all  times— 
the  rational,  dogmatic,  or  stoical  on  the  one  hand,  and  the 
sceptical  or  epicurean  on  the  other.  The  riddle  of  human 
nature,  according  to  Pascal,  can  only  be  solved  in  one  way — 
by  a  recognition  of  the  truth  taught  by  religion,  that  human 
nature  is  fallen  from  its  true  estate,  that  man  is  a  dethroned 
king;  and  this  dissonance  in  man's  nature  can  only  be  overcome 
in  one  way — through  union  with  God  made  man — with  Jesus 
Christ,  the  centre  in  which  alone  we  find  our  weakness  and  the 
divine  strength.  In  Him  all  contradictions  are  reconciled. 

Pascal  is  the  creator  of  French  classical  prose,  just  as  Cor- 
neille  is  of  French  classical  verse.  With  the  Provinciates  a 
standard  was  set  up  which  has  in  all  essentials  remained  un- 
changed ever  since. 


POETRY  127 

SECOND   PEEIOD  (1659-1689) 
CHAPTER  I 

'Jr  POETRY 

The  recognized  critic  of  the  classical  school,  the  "  Legislator 
of  the  French  Parnassus",  is  Nicolas  Boileau,  surnamed 
Despreaux. 


Boileau  was  born  in  Paris  of  an  old  stock  of  lawyers  on  the  1st  of 
Nov.,  1636.  He  received  his  early  education  at  the  College  d'Harcourt, 
and  later  at  that  of  Beauvais.  At  first  he  studied  law  and  theology,  but, 
inheriting  a  competence,  devoted  himself  to  literature.  His  first  publi- 
cations were  Satires  (1660-1665),  in  which  he  waged  successful  war 
against  all  that  seemed  to  him  false  and  despicable  in  art.  He  became 
the  champion  of  a  new  school,  the  friend  and  upholder  of  the  great 
writers  of  the  age  of  Louis  XIV,  of  La  Fontaine,  Moliere,  -and  Racine 
especially.  The  Satires  were  followed  by  the  first  JSpttres,  by  the  Art 
Pottique  (1674),  by  the  first  cantos  of  the  clever  serio-comic  poem  Le  Lu- 
trin.  In  1677  Boileau  was  appointed,  together  with  Racine,  to  write  the 
history  of  the  king,  and  renounced  for  the  time  the  profession  of  poetry. 
The  last  period  of  his  life,  down  to  his  death  in  1711,  was  taken  up  with 
his  polemics  with  the  Moderns.  To  this  period  belong  the  Reflexions 
Critiques  sur  Longin  (1694),  the  Ode  sur  la  Prise  de  Namur  (1693),  the 
three  last  Epitres  (1695),  and  the  three  last  Satires  (1694,  1698,  1705) 

All  Boileau's  most  important  contributions  to  literature, 
both  in  verse  and  prose,  fall  under  the  head  of  literary  criti- 
cism. His  work  in  that  direction  was  at  first  purely  militant 
and  destructive.  In  the  Satires  he  delivered  relentless  attacks 
on  the  dangerous  tendencies  that  were  at  work  in  French 
literature — the  conceits  of  the  prfoieuses,  the  insipid  jargon  of 
the  heroic-gallant  novels,  and  the  mawkishness  of  dramatists 
such  as  Quinault.  Once  this  task  accomplished,  Boileau  felt 
bound  to  replace  the  negative  criticism  of  the  Satires  by  formal 
precepts  on  literature.  This  he  did  in  the  Art  Pottique  (1674), 
his  capital  work,  though  he  was  too  much  of  a  satirist  at  heart 
to  forgo  the  opportunity  of  once  again  attacking  the  worth- 
less poets  in  whose  faults  he  found  the  justification  of  his  new 


128          SEVENTEENTH  CENTURY — SECOND  PERIOD 

rules.  Thus  the  criticism  of  the  Art  Potiique  falls  into  two 
distinct  categories — the  statement  of  his  poetic  doctrine,  and 
the  estimate  of  the  poetry  of  his  time,  which  is  practically  the 
same  as  in  the  Satires.  Boileau's  Art  Pottique,  which  owes 
much  of  its  doctrine  and  many  of  its  details  to  Horace,  and\j 
a  lesser  degree  to  Aristotle,  consists  of  four  cantos. 

Canto  I  contains  general  precepts  on  the  art  of  poetry,  with  a  short 
digression  on  the  history  of  French  versification  conspicuous  for  the 
ignorance  Boileau  displays  of  earlier  French  poetry. 

Canto  II  defines  1  he  special  laws  of  the  shorter  poems, — the  Idyll,  the 
Elegy,  the  Ode,  the  Sonnet,  the  Epigram,  the  Ballad,  &c. 

Canto  III  is  entirely  devoted  to  the  history  and  laws  of  tragedy,  epic, 
and  comedy. 

Canto  IV,  like  the  first,  contains  general  precepts,  and  ends  with  the 
praises  of  Louis  XIV. 

The  Art  Podtique  is  essentially  dogmatic.  In  order  properly 
to  understand  Boileau's  literary  doctrine  it  is  necessary  to 
consult  the  Epitres  and  the  Etylexions  sur  Longin,  in  which  his 
theories  are  explained  at  length. 

What,  then,  are  the  leading  principles  of  this  doctrine? 

Its  starting-point  is  the  imitation  of  nature : 

"Jamdis  de  la  nature  U  nefaut  s'lcarter  "  (iii.  414). 

Truth  to  nature  is  the  real  test  for  all  poetry.  But  this  rule 
of  rules  calls  for  restrictions.  The  poet  must  not  imitate  all 
that  is  to  be  found  in  nature,  but  only  what  conforms  to  the 
strict  rule  of  reason  and  good  sense : 

"  Tout  doit  tendre  au  Ion  sens  "  (i.  45). 

A  consequence  of  this  was  that  the  lower  attributes  of  human 
nature  were  refused  poetic  treatment,  for  what  we  have  in 
common  with  all  animals  is  just  the  opposite  of  reason.  In 
the  same  way  the  accidental,  the  ephemeral,  and  local  must 
be  eliminated,  as  only  falsifying  the  true  nature  they  disguise, 
and  the  author  must  avoid  anything  that  is  of  a  peculiarly 
personal  character,  and  deal  only  with  those  ideas  and  senti- 
ments which  he  has  in  common  with  everyone. 

Finally,  Boileau's  third  tenet  recommends  the  imitation  of 


POETRY  129 

the  ancients,  not  because  they  are  the  ancients,  but  because 
no  one  since  has  imitated  nature  with  the  same  fidelity  as  they 
did.  They  will  serve  as  a  touchstone.1 

By  referring  art  to  reason  and  truth  Boileau  was  an  emanci- 
pator; but  the  strict  domination  of  reason  in  his  doctrine  led 
to  the  exclusion  of  external  nature  (plants,  the  stars,  the  sky, 
the  elements,  &c.),  and  to  the  belief  that  the  only  study  for 
man  was  man.  It  also  tended  to  proscribe  imagination  and 
sensibility,  although  it  is  too  often  overlooked  that  in  the  very 
first  lines  of  the  Art  Pottique  Boileau  lays  stress  on  genius  as 
the  one  essential  without  which  all  is  in  vain.  Lastly,  it  led 
to  the  perfection  of  form  in  poetry,  for  as  the  poet  was  con- 
cerned only  with  general  ideas,  he  could  excel  only  by  the 
manner  in  which  he  expressed  them. 

Boileau's  influence  as  a  critic  was  immense,  and  lasted  till 
the  rise  of  the  "Romantic  School"  at  the  beginning  of  the 
19th  century.  The  study  of  foreign  literatures,  of  archaeology, 
and  of  the  Middle  Ages  was  necessary  to  complete  his  doctrine, 
and  show  its  one-sidedness.  It  was  in  the  hands  of  the  writers 
of  the  18th  century,  who  interpreted  it  to  their  own  tastes, 
that  it  became  deadening  and  sterilizing.  In  this  way  Boileau 
was  made  to  answer  for  the  faults  of  degenerate  disciples 
whom  he  would  have  been  the  first  to  repudiate. 

Modern  critics  may  differ  in  their  judgment  of  Boileau,  but 
none  have  ever  disputed  the  genius  of  Jean  de  la  Fontaine, 
the  greatest  fabulist  in  the  literature  of  the  world. 

%r/xLa  Fontaine  was  born  on  the  7th  of  July,  1621,  at  Chateau-Thierry, 
where  his  father  was  mattre  des  eaux  et  forets.  He  does  not  seem 
to  have  exerted  himself  overmuch  at  school.  At  nineteen  he  entered 
the  Oratory,  thinking  that  he  had  a  vocation  for  the  Church.  But  he 
soon  gave  up  this  idea  and  married  a  pretty  girl  of  fifteen,  Marie  Heri- 
cart,  of  whom  he  soon  got  tired.  In  1659  he  agreed  to  a  division  of 
property  and  left  his  wife.  He  came  to  Paris,  where,  under  the  protec- 
tion of  different  patrons  belonging  to  the  nobility  (La  Duchesse  de 

1  Cp.  Pope  in  a  passage  on  Virgil  in  his  Essay  on  Criticism,  directly 
inspired  by  Boileau — 

Learn  hence  for  ancient  rules  a  just  esteem; 
To  copy  Nature  is  to  copy  them". 

I 


130          SEVENTEENTH  CENTURY— SECOND  PERIOD 

Bouillon,  Prince  do  Conde,  Mme  de  la  Fayette,  and  Mme  de  k  Sabliere), 
and  following  his  natural  bent,  he  drifted  into  that  careless  and  easy- 
going existence  which  lasted  till  his  conversion,  just  before  his  death 
in  1695. 

Besides  his  Fables,  of  which  we  shall  speak  last  of  all,  La 
Fontaine  is  the  author  of  (a)  five  books  of  G'ontes,  whose  gau- 
loiserie  or  riskiness  connect  him  with  the  tradition  of  the 
fableaux;  (b)  five  larger  poems  of  mediocre  value,  of  which 
the  best  are  Adonis  (1658)  and  Philemon  et  Baucis  (1685); 
(c)  various  smaller  poems,  including  six  "elegies",  nine  "odes", 
thirteen  "ballads",  and  twenty -five  "epistles";  (d)  a  tedious 
paraphrase  of  Psycht;  and  (e)  twelve  plays  which  prove  that 
La  Fontaine  was  destitute  of  dramatic  genius. 

The  Fables,  which  consist  of  tAvelve  books,  were  published 
and  written  at  different  times — the  early  ones  in  1 668,  and  the 
last  book  not  till  1694. 

To  assign  his  correct  position  to  La  Fontaine  in  the  liter- 
ature of  his  epoch  is  no  easy  task.  His  ideal  of  life,  his 
Epicurean  morals,  connect  him  with  the  libertine  group  of 
the  beginning  of  the  century,-  and  with  the  older  irreverent 
and  Gallic  writers,  such  as  Rabelais  and  Des  Periers.  His 
language,  too,  and  his  verse  are  hampered  by  none  of  the 
conventionalities  of  the  time.  The  speech  of  the  "honneies 
gens"  suffices  not  to  render  the  manifold  echoes  of  his  universal 
sympathy.  His  is  a  personal,  energetic,  and  picturesque  lan- 
guage; he  introduces  old  words  if  they  suit  his  purpose  better 
(cuider,  engeigner,  d^duit,  liesse,  chevance,  &c.),  or  popular  phrases 
(tirant  sur  le  grison,  il  avail  du  comptant,  tout  cousu  d'or),  nor 
does  he  draw  the  line  at  words  of  any  class  (bique,  goujat,  here, 
racaille,  ripaille,  &c.).  In  versification  his  lines  and  rhythms 
vary  according  to  the  sentiment  he  is  depicting,  and  he  does 
not  shrink  from  employing  enjambement,  or  overflow,  if  the 
effect  is  heightened. 

What  distinguishes  him  above  all  things  from  most  of  his 
illustrious  companions  is  the  fact  that  he  is  a  poet,  in  the  sense 
that  we  can  always  recognize  the  unobtrusive  but  perpetual 
intervention  of  his  own  personality  in  his  work 


POETRY  131 

While  these  qualities  make  of  him  a  man  unique  of  his  kind 
at  the  time  at  which  he  lived,  it  does  not  sever  all  connection 
between  him  and  the  literature  of  his  time.  His  artistic  ideal 
is  in  close  conformity  with  that  of  Boileau,  Moliere,  and  Racine. 
Speaking  of  Moliere 's  Fdcheux,  La  Fontaine  says: 

"  Nous  avons  change"  de  me"thode, 
Jodelet  n'est  plus  &  la  mode, 
Et  maintenant  il  ne  faut  pas 
Quitter  la  nature  d'un  pas". 

But  instead  of  depicting  man  only  he  made  animals  his  special 
study,  and,  what  is  more,  he  is  the  only  writer  of  his  century 
who  introduced  external  nature  into  his  works.  In  his  Fables 
La  Fontaine  invented  nothing.  He  took  his  subjects  on  all 
sides,  from  the  ancients  (Esop,  Phedrus,  Babrius,  &c.),  or  from 
16th-century  writers  (Marot,  Des  Periers,  Rabelais,  &c.): 

"  J'en  lis  qui  sont  du  Nord  et  qui  sont  du  Midi  ", 

transforming  his  models  by  his  wonderful  gifts  as  a  poet  and 
a  psychologist: 

"  Mon  imitation  n'est  point  un  esclavage 
Je  ne  prcnds  que  l'ide"e  et  les  tours  et  Ics  lots 
Que  nos  mattres  suivaient  eux-memes  autrcfois". 

And  this  is  why  he  has  so  much  enlarged  and  extended  this 
branch  of  literature,  some  of  his  Fables  being  contes  or  fableaux 
(Le  Cure"  et  le  Mart,  La  Laiti&re  et  le  Pot  au  Lait,  La  Jeune  Veuve, 
&c.),  others  idylls  (Tucis  et  Amarante),  others  elegies  or  epistles. 
Each  of  them  is  a  little  drama  in  itself,  and  together  they 
form,  as  he  has  himself  said, 

"  Une  ample  come'die  A  cent  actes  divers 
Et  dont  la  scene  est  I'univers". 

On  this  scene,  under  the  disguise  of  animals,  the  foibles  of  his 
contemporaries  and  of  humanity  at  large  are  exposed  with  a 
quiet  and  unobtrusive  moral : 

'  En  ces  sortcs  de  feinte  il  faut  instruire  et  plaire, 
Et  confer  pour  center  me  semUe  pen  d' affaire  ". 


132          SEVENTEENTH  CENTURY— SECOND  PERIOD. 

CHAPTER  II 

DRAMA 

The  two  greatest  names  in  the  whole  of  French  dramatic 
poetry  fall  within  this  period — Moliere  in  comedy,  and  Racine 
in  tragedy. 

During  the  interval  between  Corneille  and  those  two  great  writers, 
the  most  popular  playwright  was  Philippe  Quinault  (1635-1688),  the 
author  of  seventeen  plays,  both  tragedies  and  comedies,  in  which  he 
followed  the  taste  set  by  the  novels  of  La  Calprenede  and  Mile  de 
ScudeYy. 

The  affected  and  insipid  gallantry1  of  Quinault 's  plays  is  unbearable 
now,  but  he  is  still  remembered  for  €he  graceful  and  harmonious  verse 
of  the  librettos  (1671-1686)  written  for  Lulli's  operas. 

It  is  quite  refreshing  to  turn  from  the  languid  graces  of 
Quinault  to  the  robust  good  sense  of  Moliere,  the  greatest 
name  in  the  whole  of  French  literature. 


X* 

/  bora 


Jean-Baptiste  Poquelin,  known  by  his  stage  name  of  Moliere,  was 
Corn  at  Paris  in  January,  1662.  He  was  the  son  of  a  wealthy  uphol- 
S  sterer,  who  held  the  office  of  tapissier  valet  de  chambre  to  the  king. 
From  1636  to  1641  he  was  a  pupil  of  the  College  de  Clermont  (now 
Zotm  le  Grand).  Before  leaving  school  he  had  inherited  his  father's 
charge,  but  his  bent  did  not  lie  that  way.  In  1643  he  gave  up  his  post, 
and  in  spite  of  his  father's  opposition  he  organized  a  theatrical  company 
with  the  help  of  the  Bejarts.  They  called  it  L'lUustre  Thddtre,  but  in 
spite  of  its  pompous  title  its  success  was  not  great,  and  Moliere  was 
imprisoned  for  debt.  Soon  after  he  and  his  companions  determined  to 
try  their  fortune  in  the  provinces.  They  departed  at  the  end  of  1646 
or  the  beginning  of  1647,  and  stayed  away  from  Paris  during  twelve 
years.  At  Lyons  Moliere  published  in  1655  L'Etourdi,  his  first  regular 
five-act  comedy.  Success  began  to  smile,  and  he  resolved  to  return  to 
the  capital;  on  the  24th  of  October  of  the  year -1658  he  played  for  the 
first  time  in  the  presence  of  the  king,  the  pieces  represented  being 
Corneille's  Nicomede  and  the  Docteur  Amoureux,  one  of  Moliere's  lost 
farces.  Louis  XIV  was  so  much  pleased  that  he  gave  Moliere  the 
permission  to  set  up  in  Paris  as  the  Troupe  de  Monsieur,  and  to  play 

1  Cp.  Boileau's  famous  lines : 

"  Lcs  Ji^ros  chez  Quinault  parlent  tout  autrement, 
Etjusqu'ti  'je  vous  hais  '  tout  se  dit  tejidrement". 


DRAMA  133 

alternately  with  the  Italian  actors  in  the  Petit  Bourbon  theatre.  In 
1659  he  played  Les  Precieuses  Ridicules,  which  inaugurates  the  series 
of  those  famous  plays  which  Moliere  was  to  produce  with  little  inter- 
ruption for  fourteen  years.  In  1662  he  married  Armande  Bejart.  His 
last  play  was  the  Malade  Imaginaire  (1673),  during  the  representation 
of  which  he  was  seized  with  a  violent  fit  of  coughing,  which  burst  one 
of  the  vessels  of  his  lungs.  There  was  just  time  to  take  him  home, 
where  he  died  one  hour  after  the  accident. 

The  most  important  plays  of  Moliere  can  be  classed  as 
follows : — 

(«)  Character  comedy:  Tartuffe  (1664),  Don  Juan  (1665), 
Le  Misanthrope  (1666),  L'Avare  (1668). 

(b)  Comedy  of   manners:    Les  Precieuses  Eidicules  (1659), 
UEcole  des  Marts  (1661),  L'Ecole  des  Femmes  (1662),  Georges 
Dandin  (1668),  Le  Bourgeois  Gentilhomme  (1670),  Les  Femmes 
Savantes  (1672). 

(c)  Heroic  comedy:  Dom  Garde  de  Navarre  (1661). 

(d)  Pastoral  comedy :  Melicerte  (1666). 

(e)  Farces:  Sganarelle  (1660),  Le  Mtdecin  malgre  lui  (1666), 
Les  Fourberies  de  Scapin  (1671),  Le  Malade  Imaginaire  (1673). 

(/)  Come'die-ballet:  La  Princesse  d' Elide  (1664),  L' Amour  Mtde- 
cin  (1665),  Le  Sicilien  (1667),  PsycM  (1671),  with  the  assistance 
of  Pierre  Corneille,  Quinault,  and  the  composer  Lulli. 

(g)  Critical  comedies:  La  Critique  de  I' E  cole  des  Femmes 
(1663),  L' Impromptu  de  Versailles  (1663). 

Of  his  plays,  of  which  about  one  half  are  in  prose  and 
the  other  half  in  verse,  the  best  are  Tartuffe,  Le  Misanthrope, 
L'Avare,  Les  Femmes  Savantes,  Le  Bourgeois  Gentilhomme,  Georges 
Dandin,  and  L'ficole  des  Femmes,  while  the  first  three  will 
generally  be  esteemed  his  masterpieces. 

Along  with  these,  the  Prfoieuses  Ridicules  (1659)  deserves 
more  than  passing  attention,  as  being  his  first  really  great 
play,  and  the  first  dramatic  satire  on  cultured  society  in 
France.  The  shaft  was  aimed  at  the  ridiculous  only  among 
the  pre"cieuses,  the  imitators  of  the  Hdtel  de  Rambouillet,  who 
abounded  in  Paris,  but  more  especially  in  the  provinces;  at 
least  so  said  Moliere  in  his  preface,  and  the  pre"cieuses  evidently 


134          SEVENTEENTH  CENTURY— SECOND  PERIOD 

took  him  at  his  word,  for  we  know  that  the  marchioness  and 
her  set  were  present  at  the  first  representation.  Whatever 
may  have  been  Moliere's  limitations,  it  dealt  the  class  as  a 
whole  a  severe  blow. 

The  play  ends  with  the  confusion  and  exposure  of  the  two 
prdcieuses,  Cathos  and  Madelon,  and  a  healthy  moral  on  the 
part  of  Gorgibus,  their  father  and  uncle.  Its  success  was 
immediate  and  universal,  and  even  to-day  it  has  lost  little  of 
its  comic  force. 

Moliere  was  above  all  a  believer  in  the  goodness  of  nature. 
All  those  he  attacks  in  his  works  are  those  who  disfigure  or 
tamper  with  it.  Of  these  not  the  least  dangerous  is  the  religi- 
ous hypocrite,  the  Tartuffe  of  his  next  play,  of  which  the  first 
three  acts  appeared  in  1664,  and  were  played  before  the  court 
at  Versailles.  Immediately  an  explosion  of  devotion  followed, 
to  which  the  king  yielded  by  prohibiting  the  play,  but  Moliere 
finished  his  work,  and  read  or  performed  it  at  the  houses  of 
several  of  the  great  noblemen  of  the  time.  In  1667,  on  the 
authority  of  a  verbal  promise  from  the  king,  and  having 
softened  down  a  few  of  the  bolder  passages,  Moliere  performed 
the  piece  under  the  title  of  the  Imposteur.  After  the  first  repre- 
sentation, M.  de  Lamoignon,  President  of  the  Parliament  of 
Paris,  ordered  the  theatre  to  be  closed.  Moliere,  however, 
was  not  to  be  beaten ;  he  sent  a  second  placet  to  the  king,  who 
was  then  besieging  Lille.  The  king  was  well-disposed,  but  the 
Archbishop  of  Paris  threatened  with  excommunication  anyone 
who  should  even  read  the  play.  It  was  not  till  1669,  when 
circumstances  were  more  favourable,  that  Louis  XIV  granted 
the  desired  permission. 

The  reason  for  the  storm  of  indignation  roused  by  the  play 
on  its  first  appearances  was  the  opinion  held  by  his  accusers 
that  Moliere  had  attacked  religion  itself.  They  were  not 
altogether  wrong,  in  so  far  as  religion  is  conceived  as  a 
restraining  principle.  Moliere  belonged  to  the  Ibth  century 
in  these  matters.  Like  Rabelais  and  Montaigne,  he  thought 
that  nature  and  good  sense  were  sufficient  as  guides  of  conduct 
— just  the  opposite  of  the  original  form  of  Christian  morality, 


which  is  resistance  to  nature.  This  explains  the  indignation 
of  the  high  ecclesiastics  of  the  time,  and  the  naive  fright  of 
the  Jansenist  Baillet,  who,  in  his  Jugements  des  Savants,  begins 
his  article  on  Moliere  with  the  following  words:  "M.  de 
Molihe  est  un  des  plus  dangereux  ennemis  que  le  siccle  ou  le  monde 
ait  suscites  a  VEglise  de  Jesus-Christ ". 

The  following  is  the  main  outline  of  the  story  of  Tartuffe : — 


nder  the  cloak  of  sham  devotion. the  hypocrite  Tartuffe  has  managed 
to  introduce  himself  into  the  house  of  Orgon,  a  wealthy  Parisian  bour- 
geois, who  in  his  blindness  welcomes  him  as  a  pattern  of  virtue,  and  in 
spite  of  the  warnings  of  Cleante,  his  brother-in-law,  goes  so  far  as  to 
entrust  him  with  the  management  of  his  house,  and  entreats  his  wife 
and  family  to  conform  and  submit  cheerfully  to  all  his  orders ;  not  only 
making  over  his  fortune  to  him,  but  even  offering  him  his  daughter's 
hand  in  marriage.  In  vain  does  Cle"ante  attempt  once  more  to  expose 
the  base  impostor's  hidden  baseness  and  wickedness.  Encouraged  by 
his  patron's  protection,  Tartuffe  next  begins  to  make  love  to  Orgon's 
wife ;  on  being  informed  of  this,  Orgon  declares  that  he  will  only  believe 
what  he  sees  with  his  own  eyes.  Hiding  one  day  under  the  table,  he 
sees  for  himself  Tartuffe's  perfidy  and  wickedness;  and  on  wishing  to 
turn  him  out  of  the  house,  Tartuffe  declares  that  it  is  he  who  is  master 
of  the  house,  and  that  it  is  for  Orgon  to  quit.  Suddenly  an  officer  puts 
in  an  appearance,  bearing  a  sealed  letter  from  the  king;  but,  to  every 
one's  surprise,  the  letter  is  a  warrant  for  the  apprehension  of  Tartuffe 
instead  of  Orgon,  whose  arrest  was  hourly  expected,  owing  to  an  incrimi- 
nating report. 

The  great  manner  of  Moliere  was  continued  in  the  Misan- 
thrope (1666):  Alceste  is  a  cynic,  but  honourable,  and  with 
a  real  disdain  for  vice  in  his  misanthropy.  Rousseau  on  this 
account,  and  others  after  him,  have  treated  the  play  as  a  vin- 
dication of  insincerity  against  truth,  and  as  making  virtue 
itself  ridiculous  on  the  stage.  This  charge,  however,  seems 
uncandid ;  neither  the  rudeness  of  Alceste  nor  the  misanthropy 
from  which  it  springs  are  to  be  called  virtues.  Alceste  is  not 
ridiculous  because  he  censures  vice,  but  because  he  is  a  maniac. 

The  next  play,  L'Avare  (1668),  is  Moliere's  best  piece  in 
prose.  Here  he  borrowed  from  Les  Esprits  of  Larivey,  the 
Belle  Plaideuse  of  Boisrobert,  and  especially  from  Plautus' 
Aulularia,  carrying  out  his  saying,  "Je  prends  mon  Men  oil, 


136          SEVENTEENTH  CENTURY — SECOND  PERIOD 

fe  le  trouve" — if,  indeed,  the  words  are  authentic — and  sur- 
passing them  all  in  his  wonderful  psychic  picture  of  the  Miser 
in  whom  avarice  destroys  all  family  bonds. 
A  short  analysis  of  the  play  follows : — 

llnfclise,  the  daughter  of  the  miser  Harpagon,  is  in  love  with  Valere,  who 
one  day  saved  her  life,  and  has  introduced  himself  into  the  house  in  the 
guise  of  a  steward,  while  Cle"ante,  her  brother,  is  enamoured  of  Marianne, 
a  charming  young  neighbour.  But  Harpagon  is  thinking  of  marrying 
Marianne  himself,  and  decides  that  Cle"ante  shall  marry  "a  certain 
widow",  and  his  daughter  M.  Anselme,  an  old  gentleman,  who  is  ready 
to  take  her  without  a  dowry.  Cleante,  who  is  refused  by  his  father  the 
supplies  of  money  necessary  for  his  maintenance,  is  obliged  to  borrow 
at  an  exorbitant  interest  from  a  usurer,  who  turns  out  to  be  his  father. 
Lively  scenes  ensue  now  between  father  and  son  about  the  projected 
marriage,  the  miser  finally  turning  his  son  out  of  doors.  In  the  mean- 
time La  Fleche,  Cleante's  servant,  has  stolen  a  casket  full  of  gold  which 
the  miser  had  hidden  in  his  garden,  and  will  only  restore  it  on  certain 
conditions.  Craving  to  get  back  his  money,  Harpagon  is  obliged  to 
forgo  his  own  marriage,  and  to  consent  to  the  union  of  Marianne  with 
Cle'ante,  and  of  Kliso  with  Valere.  M.  Anselme,  who  proves  to  be  the 
father  of  Valfere  and  Marianne,  promises  to  give  the  couples  a  large 
dowry,  and  to  pay  all  expenses ;  while  the  old  miser  expresses  perfect 
satisfaction  with  the  arrangement,  on  condition  that  he  is  not  asked  to 
disburse  a  penny,  and  that  he  will  be  presented  with  a  new  coat  for  the 
wedding  day. 

As  the  aim -of  this  play  has  sometimes  been  misunderstood, 
it  is  interesting  to  note  what  was  the  opinion  expressed  by 
Goethe  in  his  Conversations  with  Eckermann:  "Moliere  is  so 
great  that  one  is  astonished  anew  every  time  one  reads  him. 
He  is  a  man  by  himself — his  pieces  border  on  tragedy  .  .  . 
no  man  has  the  courage  to  imitate  him.  His  Miser,  where 
vice  destroys  all  the  natural  piety  between  father  and  son, 
is  especially  great,  and  in  a  high  sense  tragic." 

The  Bourgeois  Gentilhomme  (1670)  and  Georges  Dandin  (1668) 
have  the  same  object  of  moral  satire;  on  the  one  hand,  a  vain- 
glorious bourgeois  eager  to  ape  the  aristocracy,  on  the  other, 
the  pride  and  meanness  of  the  nobility  themselves.  In  the 
Femmes  Savantes  (1672)  Moliere  returned  to  the  subject  of  the 
Frfaieuses  Ridicules,  but  with  maturer  powers  and  greater  art. 


DRAMA  137 

It  was  the  same  folly  which  he  attacked  under  a  different 
form;  science  was  the  fashion,  and  the  pedantic  ladies  of  the 
time  were  patronesses  of  physics,  astronomy,  and  anatomy. 

Following  up  the  lesson  of  the  Ecole  des  Marts  (1661)  in 
the  Ecole  des  Femmes  (1662),  Moliere  shows  that  woman  ought 
to  be  withdrawn  from  the  inferior  intellectual  and  moral  con- 
dition in  which  she  is  kept  by  the  tyrannical  egotism  of  man. 

Moliere  is  a  purely  French  and  Gallic  genius.  His  ancestors 
are  not  the  ancients,  as  in  the  case  of  Corneille  and  Racine, 
but  the  old  authors  of  fableaux  and  farces,  as  well  as  the  16th- 
century  writers,  Rabelais  and  Regnier.  All  his  comedies, 
from  the  early  farces  to  the  Misanthrope,  represent  different 
stages  of  the  same  spirit  of  independence,  so  characteristic 
of  the  literature  of  the  16th  century.  This  explains  why  he 
cared  so  little  about  the  famous  "Rules  of  Unity":  "Je 
voiulrais  bien  savoir",  he  says  in  the  Fdchcux,  "si  la  grande 
regie  de  toutes  Us  regies  riest  pas  de  plaire  ".  His  belief  in  tho 
goodness  of  nature,  and  his  persistent  refusal  to  comply  with 
any  restraint  or  discipline,  are  also  typical  of  the  Gallic  genius. 

By  his  indifference  to  conventional  processes,  by  his  con- 
tinual and  indefatigable  production  in  spite  of  all  obstacles, 
by  the  plenitude  of  his  art,  unhampered  by  any  of  the  slow 
and  studied  methods  of  a  Boileau  or  a  Pope,  he  deserves  to 
take  rank  among  such  universal  geniuses  as  Homer,  Plautus, 
Shakespeare,  and  Rabelais. 

The  French  have  claimed  for  him  a  superiority  over  all 
earlier  and  later  writers  of  comedy.  On  the  whole,  there  is 
no  reason  to  gainsay  the  universal  suffrage  of  the  nation. 
Shakespeare  was  a  greater  genius  because  he  excelled  in 
tragedy  as  well  as  comedy,  and  also  because,  apart  from  being 
a  good  dramatist,  he  is  one  of  the  greatest  poets  of  the  world, 
while  Moliere  was  hardly  a  poet  at  all.  The  influence  of 
Moliere  in  comedy  has  been  immense,  greater  by  far  than  that 
of  any  other  writer  belonging  to  that  particular  branch.  All 
succeeding  French  writers  of  comedy  derive  directly  from  him, 
neither  was  his  influence  less  in  England  (cp.  Fielding  and 
Sheridan) — in  fact,  one  might  almost  say  that  for  two  hundred 


138          SEVENTEENTH  CENTURY— SECOND  PERIOD 

years  Moliere's  comedy  has  determined  the  form  of  European 
comedy. 

Moliere  has  at  all  times  been  taken  to  task  for  his  style; 
but  it  is  too  often  forgotten  that  his  verse  as  well  as  his  prose 
are  meant  to  be  spoken  on  the  stage,  and  not  to  be  read. 
Thus  it  is  not  fair  to  judge  his  comedies  as  books;  a  great 
many  of  the  so-called  faults  of  his  style  being  due  to  the  fact 
that  such  and  such  a  phrase  or  expression  is  meant  for  the  ear 
and  not  for  the  eye. 

The  typical  representative  of  the  literary  ideal  of  the  grand 
sic-cle,  or  rather  of  its  golden  age,  is  Jean  Racine. 

^»  Racine  was  born  on  December  22,  1639,  at  La  Ferte"  Milon.  After 
'ne  had  passed  through  the  town  school  of  Beauvais,  he  was  sent  to 
that  of  Port-Royal.  Here  he  studied  hard,  especially  at  Greek,  which  he 
knew  better  than  any  of  his  fellow-writers.  At  nineteen  he  came  to  Paris 
to  complete  his  studies,  and  an  ode  in  honour  of  the  king's  marriage,  La 
Nymphe  de  la  Seine,  made  his  name  widely  known.  In  1661  he  went  to 
Uzes  in  Languedoc,  hoping  in  vain  to  obtain  a  benefice  from  his  uncle, 
the  vicar -general  of  the  diocese.  He  returned  to  Paris  early  in  1663, 
and  soon  after  composed  a  second  ode,  which  brought  him  a  gratification 
of  800  livres.  In  the  meantime  he  had  made  the  acquaintance  of 
Boileau,  Moliere,  and  La  Fontaine.  His  principal  efforts  were  now 
directed  to  the  stage.  Assisted  by  Moliere,  he  gained  some  recognition 
for  his  first  tragedy,  La  Thtbaide  or  Lea  Freres  Ennemis  (1664).  This 
was  followed  by  Alexandre  (1665),  which  after  the  sixth  performance 
was  withdrawn  from  Molifere's  theatre  and  entrusted  to  the  rival  actors 
at  the  II6td  de  Bouryognc.  This  incident,  added  to  the  fact  that  Racine 
persuaded  Mile  du  Pare,  Moliere's  best  actress,  to  leave  him,  led  to  an 
estrangement  between  the  two  great  poets.  In  1666  appeared  Nicole's 
Visionnaires,  condemning  the  dramatist  as  an  "  empoisonncur  public  ", 
and  Racine,  believing  that  he  had  been  personally  aimed  at,  issued  a  reply 
in  which  he  mercilessly  ridiculed  the  men  who  had  been  his  teachers  at 
Port-Royal.  During  the  next  ten  years  Racine  produced  his  dramatic 
masterpieces.  Moved  by  religious  scruples,  and  mortified  at  the  con- 
tinual cabals  formed  against  his  plays,  he  turned  from  dramatic  work 
(1677),  made  his  peace  with  Port-Royal,  and  married  in  June  of  the 
same  year.  It  was  only  in  1689,  at  the  request  of  Mme  de  Main  tenon, 
that  he  wrote  Esther,  his  first  biblical  play,  which  was  followed  in  1691 
by  Athalie,  also  a  scriptural  drama.  In  his  later  years  he  lost  the  king's 
favour,  chiefly  on  account  of  his  Jansenist  tendencies,  and  died  in  1699. 

Apart  from  his  two  initiatory  efforts,  La  Thtldide  (1663),  a 


DRAMA  139 

poor  imitation  of  Corneille's  manner,  and  Alexandre  (1665),  in 
which  he  closely  followed  Quinault,  Racine's  dramas  consist  of 
Andromaque  (1667),  Les  Plaideurs  (1688),  his  only  comedy; 
Britannicus  (1669),  Berenice  (1670),  Bajazet  (1672),  Mithridate 
(1673),  Iphigtnie  (1675),  Phedre  (1677),  and  the  two  biblical 
plays,  Esther  (1689)  and  Athalie  (1691). 

The  series  of  Racine's  masterpieces  was  opened  by  Andro- 
maque (1667),  which  had  as  great  a  success  as  Corneille's  Cid 
thirty  years  previously.  The  plot  of  Andromaque  was  taken 
partly  from  Book  II  of  the  ^Eneid  and  partly  from  the 
Andromaque  of  Euripides,  though  some  points  of  importance, 
mainly  with  regard  to  the  character  of  the  heroine,  have  been 
essentially  altered.  It  marked  the  advent  of  a  new  tragic 
ideal,  the  very  opposite  of  that  of  Corneille,  the  substitution 
of  human  passion,  and  especially  love,  for  the  heroic  crises 
of  the  will,  and  for  that  reason  it  was  but  coldly  received 
by  the  partisans  of  the  older  dramatists,  who  found  the  hero 
Pyrrhus  "too  violent".  Racine  retorted  in  the  preface  that 
"  tons  les  htros  ne  sont  pas  fails  pour  etre  des  Celadons  ";x  while 
Subligny,  an  obscure  author  of  the  time,  took  advantage  of 
the  occasion  to  write  a  parody,  La  Folle  Querdle,  which  he 
took  to  Moliere,  who  did  not  refuse  it.  Since  the  "  plot "  of 
Alexandre  he  thought  he  had  a  right  to  reprisals. 

Racine's  next  play,  Les  Plaideurs  (1688),  gave  a  new  proof 
of  his  brilliant  talent  for  satire,  which  he  had  already  dis- 
played in  his  letters  against  the  Port -Royalists.  It  is  a 
caricature  of  lawyers  written  by  Racine  to  avenge  himself  for 
the  loss  of  a  law-suit  concerning  the  priory  of  Epinay.  In  the 
preface  Racine  tells  us  that  he  received  some  help  from  "  his 
friends".  These  friends  were  the  little  group  who  were  in 
the  habit  of  meeting  at  the  inn  of  the  Mouton  Blanc,  namely 
Boileau,  La  Fontaine,  Furetiere,  and  a  few  others.  The 
matter  of  the  Plaideurs  may  be  due  to  several  hands,  but  the 
form  obviously  belongs  to  Racine  alone.  The  play  was  coolly 
received.  People  insisted,  says  the  author,  on  examining 

1  It  will  be  remembered  that  Celadon  is  the  sentimental  hero  of  D'Urf e's 

Astree. 


140  SEVENTEENTH    CENTURY— SECOND    PERIOD 

"  mon  amusement  comme  on  aurait  fail  tine  tragtdie ",  hut  the 
play  being  performed  at  court  a  month  later,  the  king  laughed 
loudly  and  the  courtiers  followed  suit. 

Till  now  the  enemies  of  Racine  had  maintained  that  he 
could  only  depict  the  passion  of  love.  To  prove  the  contrary 
he  borrowed  from  Tacitus  the  subject  of  his  next  play,  Britan- 
nicus1  (1669),  a  masterly  exposition  of  Nero's  adolescence  in 
crime  and  of  his  struggle  against  his  ambitious  mother  Agrip- 
pina.  The  first  preface  to  Britannicus,  together  with  that  of 
Berenice  (1670),  Racine's  next  tragedy,  is  especially  important 
as  containing  the  declaration  of  his  poetical  system. 

The  subject  of  Btrtnice,  Titus  sacrificing  his  love  for  the 
Jewish  queen  to  political  considerations,  had  been  proposed  at 
the  same  time  to  Racine  and  Corneille  by  Louis  the  Four- 
teenth's sister-in-law,  the  sprightly  Henrietta  of  England. 
Bdrdnice  is  not  one  of  Racine's  best  plays,  but,  needless  to  say, 
is  far  superior  to  that  of  Corneille,  whose  powers  were  fast 
waning. 

In  his  next  play,  Bajazet  (1672),  Racine  brought  on  the 
stage  an  almost  contemporary  event  of  Turkish  history,  related 
to  him  by  Count  de  Cezy,  French  ambassador  at  the  Porte. 

His  enemies  had  this  time  to  lower  their  flag,  yet  Mme 
de  Sevigne  could  not  grant  that  Racine  had  equalled  her 
darling  Corneille,  and  put  down  most  of  the  success  of  Bajazet 
to  the  marvellous  acting  of  Mile  Champmesl6,  a  famous 
actress  of  the  time :  "  Bajazet  est  au-dessous  (d' Andromaque)  .  .  . 
Racine  fait  des  comedies  (plays)  pour  la  Champmesle";  ce  n'est  pas 
pour  les  siecles  a  venir.  Si  jamais  il  n'est  plus  jeune,  et  qdil  cesse 
d'etre  amoureux,  ce  ne  sera  plus  la  meme  chose.  Vive  done  notre 
vieil  ami  Corneille!  Pardonnons-lui  de  me"chants  vers  en  faveur  des 
divines  et  sublimes  beautts  qui  nous  transported." 

The  year  after  (1673)  Mithridate  appeared.  In  this  play 
Racine  freely  availed  himself  of  the  historical  traditions  con- 
tained in  Appian,  Plutarch,  Florus,  and  Don  Cassius. 

1  Cp.  Boileau's  allusion  in  the  Epitre  vii : 

"  Et  peut-itre  ta  plume  aux  ccnseurs  de  Pyrrhus 
Doit  les  plus  nobles  trait?  dont  tu  peignis  Burrhus  ", 


DRAMA  141 

It  could  not  be  said  that  he  had  equalled  Corneille  on 
his  own  ground  in  Britannicus,  but  in  Mithridate,  together 
with  the  figure  of  Monimia,  that  emblem  of  feminine  grace 
and  delicacy,  he  exhibits  a  picture  of  large  political  interests 
in  a  manner  hardly  surpassed  by  his  rival.  Racine  shows 
his  hero  Mithridate  unhappy  in  love  and  in  policy,  his  son 
Xiphares  being  his  rival  in  the  former  and  his  other  son 
Pharnace  in  the  latter.  When  Mithridate  sees  himself  be- 
trayed by  Pharnace,  who  has  joined  the  Romans  his  mortal 
enemies,  he  kills  himself,  but  dies  reconciled  with  Xiphares 
and  Monimia,  the  princess  they  both  loved. 

This  play,  which  is  said  to  have  been  the  favourite  tragedy 
of  Louis  XIV  and  Charles  XII  of  Sweden,  was  followed  by 
Iphigtnie  en  Aulide,  first  performed  at  Versailles  before  the 
court  (Aug.,  1674),  and  half  a  year  later  at  Paris.  Racine  for 
the  most  part  imitated  the  Iphigenia  of  Euripides;  but  instead 
of  adopting  the  ddnotiment  of  the  Attic  tragedian,  he  followed 
another  ancient  tradition.  In  his  version  Eriphile,  jealous  of 
Iphigenia,  who  gains  the  love  of  Achilles,  denounces  her  rival 
to  the  Greeks  in  order  to  see  her  sacrificed,  but  kills  herself 
when  it  appears  that  she  is  herself  the  victim  demanded  by 
the  gods. 

It  was  not  till  January,  1677,  that  Racine  produced  his 
next  tragedy,  Phbdre,  which  he  preferred  to  all  his  other 
plays :  "  Je  suis  pour  Phedre  et  M.  le  prince  de  Condd  est  pour 
Athalie  ",  he  replied  to  Boileau,  when  he  asked  him  which  of 
his  tragedies  he  liked  best.  The  plot  was  again  borrowed 
from  one  of  Euripides'  plays,  Hippolytus,  although  with  impor- 
tant changes  in  the  action  and  characters,  partly  suggested 
by  the  Phaedra  of  Seneca: 

\f  Phedra,  the  wife  of  King  Theseus,  is  in  love  with  her  step-son  Hippo- 
lytus. In  her  despair  she  resolves  to  die,  but  learning  that  her  husband 
has  died,  she  declares  her  love  to  Hippolytus,  who  repels  her  advances. 
Suddenly  the  report  spreads  that  Theseus  is  safe  and  on  his  way  home. 
Phedra  to  exonerate  herself  gets  her  nurse  CEnone  to  persuade  the  king, 
who  has  now  arrived,  that  Hippolytus  has  wished  to  obtrude  his  love 
upon  her.  Theseus  in  his  wrath  banishes  his  son,  and  calls  upon 
Neptune  to  punish  him.  The  suicide  of  CEnone,  whom  Phedra  has 


142          SEVENTEENTH  CENTURY— SECOND  PERIOD 

cursed  in  her  remorse  for  her  criminal  suggestion,  opens  the  king's  eyes, 
but  it  is  too  late.  Hippolytus  has  been  dragged  to  death  by  his  runaway 
steeds.  Phedra  takes  poison,  and  as  she  dies  confesses  the  crime  of  which 
(Enone  was  the  instigator. 

If  not  the  most  perfect  of  Eacine's  tragedies,  Phedre  is 
generally  acknowledged  to  be  the  most  powerful.  Never 
before  had  such  a  marvellous  representation  of  human  agony 
been  exhibited  on  the  French  stage,  but  tragic  passion  repre- 
sented in  all  its  force  and  horror  shocked  the  precieux,  fol- 
lowers of  Quinault  and  of  the  heroic-gallant  novel.  The 
Duchess  de  Bouillon  and  her  brother  the  Due  de  Nevers 
made  up  their  minds  that  the  play  of  Racine  should  fail;  and 
ordered  a  rival  play  on  the  same  subject  from  Pradon,  a  feeble 
playwright  of  the  time,  and  by  engaging  the  front  seats  in 
the  two  theatres  for  six  successive  nights,  and  leaving  them 
empty  in  the  one  where  Racine's  play  was  being  performed, 
made  it  appear  as  if  it  was  a  failure.  Immediately  a  violent 
literary  quarrel  followed,  and  on  both  sides  insulting  sonnets 
were  exchanged.  The  Due  de  Nevers  threatened  to  horse- 
whip Racine,  and  Boileau  who  had  sided  with  him,  and  would 
probably  have  carried  out  his  threat  had  not  the  Prince  de 
Cond^  intervened  and  put  a  stop  to  the  dispute. 

The  cabal  had  been  baffled,  but  Racine,  who  was  in  the 
highest  degree  sensitive,  irritated  by  the  endless  intrigues 
of  his  adversaries,  and  troubled  in  his  conscience  by  religious 
scruples,  determined  to  quit  the  stage.  The  Jansenists  were 
regaining  their  ascendency  over  him,  and  already  in  the  pre- 
face of  Phkdre  we  notice  that  he  is  very  eager  "de  rdconcilier 
la  tragtdie  avec  quantity  de  personnes  cdUbres  par  lew  piett  el  par 
leur  doctrine,  qui  I'ont  condamnde  dans  ces  derniers  temps",  a  direct 
allusion  to  his  old  master's  words  that  playwrights  were. 
"  public  poisoners  ". 

Racine  did  not  return  to  dramatic  work  till  twelve  years 
after  (1689),  when  he  accepted  an  invitation  from  Mme  de 
Maintenon  to  compose  a  biblical  drama  for  her  pupils,  the 
young  ladies  of  the  educational  establishment  of  St.  Cyr. 
The  result  was  the  play  of  Estlier  0689).  So  great  was  the 


DRAMA  143 

success  that  the  same  lady  asked  the  poet  for  a  second  drama 
of  a  religious  character,  and  he  produced  what  is  generally 
recognized  as  his  most  perfect  play,  Athalie  (1691),  a  unique 
blending  of  grace  and  majesty. 

He  took  the  plot  from  2  Chron.  xxii  and  xxiii,  and  called 
the  play  Athalie,  partly  because  Athaliah  is  the  central  figure, 
partly  because  her  name  appeared  to  him  better  known  than 
that  of  Joas: 

}t  Athaliah  has  caused  her  grandchildren  to  be  murdered  in  order  to 
reign  in  their  stead,  and  introduce  the  cult  of  idols.  One  of  these 
children,  Joas,  has  escaped,  and  been  brought  up  in  the  temple  in  the 
fear  of  God  by  the  high-priest,  Joad,  and  his  wife,  Josabet.  Athaliah 
comes  to  the  temple,  followed  by  Mathan,  who  has  renounced  his  true 
God  to  become  a  priest  of  Baal.  She  relates  to  Mathan  and  Abner,  one 
of  the  officers  of  the  King  of  Judah,  a  terrible  dream,  in  which  a  child 
stabbed  her  to  the  heart.  She  recognizes  -that  child  in  the  person  of 
young  Joas ;  orders  him  to  be  led  into  her  presence,  and  requests  that 
the  boy  shall  be  delivered  up  to  her.  Joad  refuses,  and  Athaliah  leaves 
the  temple  with  threats.  The  high-priest  sees  that  no  time  must  be  lost, 
and  crowns  Joas  king.  Presently  Abner  arrives  with  an  order  from 
Athaliah  to  Joad  to  yield  up  the  child,  and  also  a  treasure  concealed  in 
the  temple.  He  feigns  to  yield,  and  lures  Athaliah  into  the  temple, 
where  she  falls  a  victim  to  the  Levites  armed  against  her  by  the  high- 
priest. 

Racine  is  the  creator  of  character-tragedy,  of  tragedy  true 
to  life,  as  opposed  to  the  tragedy  of  Corneille,  whose  inventive 
powers  were  applied  to  the  creating  of  situations  to  which  he 
afterwards  accommodated  his  characters.  A  consequence  of 
this  principle  is  that  the  exceptional,  extraordinary,  and 
•'complex"  action  of  Corneille's  plays  is  replaced  by  "une 
action  simple,  ch'arg^e  de  peu  de  matikre  ",  turning  upon  everyday 
experience.  Compare,  e.g.,  Corneille's  Cinna,  a  conspirator 
when  the  curtain  rises,  and  at  the  end  of  the  play  the  minister 
of  the  prince  he  wished  to  murder,  with  Mithridate,  a  father 
the  rival  of  his  son;  or  Rodrigue,  obliged  by  his  honour  to 
kill  his  mistress's  father,  and  the  same  day  betrothed  to  the 
daughter  of  his  victim,  with  the  subject  of  Britannicus,  the 
struggle  between  a  son  and  his  ambitious  mother.  Another 
consequence  of  Racine's  poetical  system  was  the  unprecedented 


144          SEVENTEENTH  CENTURY — SECOND  PERIOD 

importance  given  in  his  tragedies  to  the  passion  of  love,  as 
being  the  most  general  of  all,  the  most  natural,  and  perhaps 
the  most  tragic,  and  finally  as  being  the  passion  which,  while 
it  remains  identical  in  its  essence,  best  displays  the  diversity 
of  human  characters.  Here  again  Racine  was  doing  the  oppo- 
site of  what  Corneille  recommended  and  actually  did. 

Racine  has  been  blamed  for  having  depicted  under  ancient 
names  courtiers  of  the  time  of  Louis  XIV,  but  no  drama  can 
escape  the  reflection  of  contemporary  manners,  however  careful 
the  author  may  be  of  local  colour — a  consideration  which,  like 
historical  accuracy,  only  concerned  him  in  so  far  as  they 
were  needful  with  his  courtly  audience  for  verisimilitude. 
Local  colour  at  best  is  only  an  outward  ornament,  and  may 
help  the  writer  to  add  poetry  to  truth;  but  the  object  of  the 
drama  is  to  depict  human  passions,  and  not  to  restore  forgotten 
epochs  of  civilization  by  an  effort  of  erudition.  Racine's 
characters  only  belong  to  antiquity  by  name;  outwardly  they 
are  noblemen  of  the  time  when  one  man  was  the  state,  and 
inwardly  real  and  lasting  types  of  humanity. 

Although  it  cannot  be  denied  that  occasionally  his  heroes 
4o  talk  the  jargon  of  gallantry  a  la  Quinault,  it  is  false  to 
make  a  prfcieux  of  Racine.  His  contemporaries  on  more  than 
one  occasion  found  that  he  invested  his  characters  with  too 
much  inborn  ferocity,  and  it  was  his  abhorrence  of  his  own 
fictions  which  was  the  inward  cause  of  his  conversion.  If  any 
fault  can  be  found  with  his  characters  it  is  that  they  sometimes 
tend  in  their  generality  to  become  psychological  abstractions 
rather  than  real  living  beings. 

His  style,  except  as  regards  the  invariable  elegance  of 
its  form,  has  been  described  as  "  bordering  on  prose  ".  This 
simplicity  makes  it  an  incomparable  vehicle  for  psychological 
analysis: 

"faimaisjusqu'd,  ces  pleurs  que  je  faisais  coulcr"  (Brit.). 
"  Prends  soin  d'ette,  ma  haine  a  besoin  de  sa  vie  "  (Baj.),  &c. 

This  mode  of  writing  is  exactly  the  contrary  of  that  of  the 
yyrtdcux,  who  express  very  simple  things  in  very  complicated 
language. 


PROSE  145 

Of  the  contemporaries  of  Racine  the  only  one  who  is  not  entirely 
forgotten  is  Thomas  Corneille  (1625-1709),  a  younger  brother  of  the 
grand  Corneille.  He  began  by  writing  comedies  mostly  imitated  from 
Spanish  models,  and  in  1656  produced  Timocrate,  an  insipid  tragedy  in 
the  manner  of  Quinault,  the  greatest  dramatic  success  of  the  century. 
Later  he  imitated  Racine  in  Ariane  (1672),  and  his  brother  in  the  Comte 
d' Essex  (1678). 


CHAPTER  III 

PROSE 

In  this  period  prose  developed  considerably  in  the  direction 
of  memoirs.  Of  these  the  most  remarkable  are  the  Mdmoires 
(1662-1679)  of  Paul  de  Gondi,  Cardinal  de  Retz  (1613-1679), 
in  which  he  relates  the  events  of  the  Fronde l  and  the  part  he 
played  in  it. 

Too  passionate  to  be  impartial,  his  Memoirs  nevertheless 
present  a  living  picture  of  his  time  as  a  whole.  They  abound 
in  portraits,  which  were  then  coming  into  fashion,  and  in 
political  considerations. 

The  same  period  is  also  covered  by  the  Mtmoires  of  the  Due 
de  la  Rochefoucauld,  the  author  of  the  more  famous  Maximes. 

The  life  of  Francois  de  la  Rochefoucauld,  Prince  de  Mar- 
sillac  (1613-1680),  naturally  falls  into  two  parts:  one  active 
and  adventurous,  when  he  threw  himself  ardently  into  the 
struggle  of  the  Fronde;  the  other  of  bitter  disillusion  amid 
a  chosen  circle  of  devoted  friends,  of  whom  not  the  least 
important  was  Mme  de  Sable,  a  later  prfcieuse,  at  whose  salon 
he  was  an  assiduous  visitor.  It  was  there,  with  the  help  of 
the  hostess  and  a  few  of  her  friends,  that  he  elaborated  those 
maxims  which  are  the  quintessence  of  preciosity.  Their  value 
must  not  be  overrated  in  spite  of  the  wonderful  conciseness 

1  Fronde  is  the  name  (taken  from  the  sling  used  by  the  boys  of  Paris  in 
their  mimic  fights)  given  to  certain  civil  dissensions  from  1648  to  1654. 
The  Old  Fronde  was  a  protest  of  the  people  against  increasing  taxation 
and  the  usurpation  of  their  parliamentary  rights.  The  New  Fronde,  which 
developed  from  it,  was  a  struggle  between  the  discontented  nobility  and 
the  prime  minister,  Mazarin  whom  they  wished  to  overthrow. 

(  M  043  )  K. 


146  SEVENTEENTH   CENTURY — SECOND   PERIOD 

and  polish  of  their  lapidarian  style.  The  central  idea  that 
runs  through  them  all  is,  briefly,  that  every  virtue  is  the 
product  of  vices,  while  these  are  resolvable  into  selfishness, 
"  in  which  all  virtues  are  lost  like  rivers  in  the  sea  ".  A  few 
quotations  will  bring  this  out  more  clearly : 

"  We  all  have  strength  enough  to  endure  the  misfortunes  of  others." 

"  In  the  adversity  of  our  friends  we  always  find  something  which  does 
not  displease  us." 

"People  sometimes  think  that  we  hate  flattery,  but  we  hate  only  the 
way  they  flatter." 

"  Our  passions  are  the  only  orators  that  always  convince." 

Such  are  the  moral  comments  on  life  of  one  who  was  unable 
to  gaze  on  the  world  with  an  impartial  mind.  Although  it  is 
impossible  to  deny  the  partial  truth  of  La  Rochefoucauld's 
charges,  we  cannot  admit  that  his  maxims  are  universal;  they 
are  purely  the  reflection  of  his  mood,  after  a  bitter  experience 
of  life,  or,  at  most,  of  the  society  with  which  he  was  conversant. 
On  that  account  they  were  very  popular  with  his  contempor- 
aries; Boileau,  La  Fontaine,  and  especially  Mme  de  Sevigne", 
all  admired  them. 

The  character  and  influence  of  La  Eochefoucauld's  style  has 
been  happily  characterized  by  Voltaire  in  the  following  pas- 
sage: "Un  des  outrages  qui  contribuerent  le  plus  a  former  le  gout 
de  la  nation  et  a  lui  donner  un  esprit  de  justesse  et  de  precision  est 
le  Lime  des  Maximes  de  Francois,  Due  de  La  Rochefoucauld.  On 
lut  avec  avidite  ce  petit  recueil.  II  accoutuma  a  penser  et  a  ren- 
fermer  des  idees  dans  un  tour  vif,  precis  et  de"licat." 

Epistolary  art  also  finds  many  a  notable  representative  in 
this  age;  in  fact,  it  may  be  said  to  have  reached  perfection  in 
the  letters  of  Mme  de  Sevigne  (1627-1696). 

Being  left  a  widow  at  the  age  of  twenty-five,  she  devoted 
herself  entirely  to  the  education  of  her  two  children,  especially 
of  her  daughter;  and  when  the  latter,  who  had  meanwhile 
married  M.  de  Grignan,  left  her  to  follow  her  husband  into 
Provence,  of  which  he  had  been  appointed  governor,  she  began 
with  her  daughter  that  famous  correspondence  which  continued 
till  her  death,  and  which  has  earned  for  her  so  high  a  place 


PROSE  147 

in  the  literature  of  her  country.  Her  letters  are  not  rhetorical 
studied  exercises  decked  out  for  the  public  like  those  of  Balzac, 
but  a  delightfully  natural  and  graceful  exchange  of  thought, 
in  which  she  allows  her  imagination  to  run  away  with  her  pen, 
but  is  never  false  to  her  solid  understanding  and  strong  good 
sense.  Mme  de  Sevigne's  twenty-five  years  of  letters  to  her 
daughter  are  also  valuable  as  revealing  in  detail  the  court  and 
fashionable  world  in  the  reign  of  Louis  XIV. 

A  letter-writer  also,  and  a  faithful  friend  of  Mme  de  Se- 
vigne,  was  Marie  Madeleine,  Comtesse  de  la  Fayette  (1634- 
1693),  the  founder  of  the  modern  novel.  Her  first  work  of 
fiction,  Zayde  (1670),  already  marks  an  advance  on  the  long- 
winded  and  insipid  productions  of  Mile  de  Scude"ry,  while 
La  Princesse  de  Clkves  (1677),  her  masterpiece,  represents  real 
and  natural  sentiments  in  precise  language.  It  is  the  starting- 
point  of  the  modern  psychological  novel. 

The  realistic  novel  was  continued  by  Antoine  Furetiere 
(1620-1688),  also  the  compiler  of  a  Dictionnaire  (1690)  of  the 
French  language,  for  which  he  was  unjustly  expelled  from  the 
Academy  as  a  plagiarist.  His  Boman  Bourgeois  (1666)  is  a 
pessimistic  and  satirical  narrative  of  middle-class  life  in  Paris, 
with  a  second  part  directly  aimed  at  Sorel,  his  forerunner  in 
this  branch  of  literature. 

At  no  period  of  French  literature  has  pulpit  oratory  been 
represented  by  a  series  of  more  famous  names.  The  greatest 
pulpit  orator  of  all  times,  and  perhaps  the  greatest  French 
prose  writer  of  the  17th  century,  was  Jacques  Benigne  Bossuet. 

Bossuet  was  born  at  Dijon  on  the  27th  of  Sept.,  1627.  At  an  early 
age  he  was  sent  to  the  school  of  his  native  town;  and  when  fifteen 
years  of  age  he  proceeded  to  Paris,  where  he  finished  his  studies.  He 
was  ordained  in  1652,  and  placed  at  the  head  of  a  mission  sent  to 
Lorraine  to  convert  the  Protestants  of  that  province.  Here  it  was  that 
he  composed  his  first  polemical  work  against  the  Protestants.  In  1659 
he  was  summoned  to  Paris,  where  he  preached  for  ten  years  with  im- 
mense success.  In  1669  he  pronounced  the  funeral  oration  of  Henrietta 
of  France,  being  rewarded  with  the  bishopric  of  Condom,  and  soon 
afterwards  (1670)  was  appointed  tutor  to  the  Dauphin,  the  king's  son. 
From  that  date  he  devoted  himself  entirely  to  the  education  of  his  royal 


148          SEVENTEENTH  CENTURY— SECOND  PERIOD 

pupil,  and  with  that  object  wrote  some  of  his  most  important  works. 
The  remaining  portion  of  his  life,  save  that  he  delivered  a  few  funeral 
discourses  between  1683  and  1687,  was  wholly  devoted  to  controversial 
works  in  defence  of  the  Catholic  faith.  Despite  this  he  did  not  neglect 
the  duties  of  his  diocese;  "faisant  honte",  says  Saint-Simon,  "dans  une 
vieillesse  si  avancte,  A  I'dge  moyen  et  robuste  des  Mques  et  des  docteurs 
les  plus  instruits  et  les  plus  laborieux  ".  He  died  on  the  12th  of  April, 
1704. 

The  chief  works  of  Bossuet  may  be  classed  under  the  follow- 
ing headings : — 

(a)  Works  of  Edification  and  Piety,  which  include  sermons, 
panegyrics,  and  funeral  orations;  the  Elevations  sur  les  Mys- 
teres  and  the  Meditations  sur  I'Evangile.  Of  these  only  six  of  the 
funeral  orations  and  one  sermon  appeared  during  his  lifetime. 

(6)  The  works  composed  in  connection  with  the  education  of 
the  Dauphin,  which  are :  the  Discours  sur  I'Histoire  Universelle 
(1681),  the  Politique  tirde  des  Propres  Paroles  de  V Venture  Sainte, 
the  Trait^  de  la  Connaissance  de  Dieu  et  de  soi-meme,  the  Abrtge 
de  I'Histoire  de  France,  which  only  appeared  in  1747. 

(c)  The  Controversial  Works,  which  include:  (1)  The  works 
against  the  Protestants,  the  principal  being  L'Exposition  de  la 
Doctrine  de  I'Eglise  Catholique  (1671),  and  L'Histoire  des  Variations 
des  Eglises  Protestantes  (1688).     (2)  The  works  relating  to  the 
"Quietists"  or  "new  mystics",  of  which  the  most  important 
is  the  Relation  du  Quittisme  (1698).     (3)  The  works  written 
against  Eichard  Simon,  the  first  man  to  apply  scientific  learn- 
ing to   the   explanation   of    the   Scriptures.     These   include 
the  Defense  de  la  Tradition  et  des  Saints  Peres,  which  only 
appeared  in  1753. 

(d)  Miscellaneous  writings,  of  which  the  principal  are  the 
Maximes  sur  la  Come'die  (1693). 

We  shall  consider  his  most  important  works  in  the  order 
named. 

Bossuet  pronounced  some  famous  funeral  orations,  of  which 
the  best  are  those  on  Henrietta,  queen  of  England  (1669);  on 
her  daughter  Henrietta  of  England,  duchess  of  Orleans  (1670); 
on  Marie-Therese  of  Austria,  queen  of  France  (1683);  on 
Anne  de  Gonzague  de  Cleves,  princesse  Palatine,  in  which  the 


PROSE  149 

libertins  or  freethinkers  of  the  time  are  mercilessly  attacked 
(1685);  on  Michel  le  Tellier,  chancellor  of  France  (1686),  in 
which  the  revocation  of  the  Edict  of  Nantes  is  glorified;  and 
on  Louis  de  Bourbon,  prince  de  Conde  (1687). 

Before  Bossuet,  the  chief  aim  in  the  funeral  discourse  had 
been  to  please  the  audience  much  more  than  to  instruct  and 
edify.  We  know  what  ideas  the  preachers  who  preceded 
him  had  on  that  subject,  from  one  of  the  most  famous  of 
them  under  Louis  XIII,  the  eloquent  Francois  Ogier.  He 
acknowledges  that  funeral  orations  are  merely  meant  for  osten- 
tation, diversion,  and  pomp;  that  since  the  pleasure  is  for  the 
rich,  "exquisite  viands"  are  required.  A  funeral  oration  is 
like  a  tournament  or  a  review,  and  the  orator  must  display 
all  his  art  and  "all  the  floAvers  of  his  eloquence".  Such  was 
the  ideal  before  Bossuet.  He  changed  it  completely  by  apply- 
ing to  the  funeral  oration  the  same  method  as  to  his  sermons 
and  panegyrics;  instead  of  considering  life,  he  only  considered 
death,  which  furnishes  the  lesson  and  acts  as  a  foundation 
for  it. 

Bossuet  has  sometimes  been  accused  of  flattery  and  insin- 
cerity in  his  orations.  No  doubt  he  respected  all  the  conven- 
tionalities which  the  audience  and  the  occasion  imposed  upon 
him,  but  at  the  same  time  he  spoke  or  hinted  at  all  the  truth 
which  he  was  capable  of  conceiving.  His  views  on  the  revo- 
cation of  the  Edict  of  Nantes,  and  on  the  revolution  in  England, 
were  those  of  all  his  contemporaries  in  France.  He  said  what 
he  thought,  and  these  events  are  judged  in  the  same  way  in 
his  other  writings. 

Of  the  works  composed  for  the  Dauphin  the  most  important 
is  the  Discours  sur  I'Histoire  Universelle  (1681),  which  is  made 
up  of  three  parts:  Les  fipoques,  La  Suite  de  la  Religion,  and 
Les  Empires.  The  first  part  is  a  rapid  and  masterly  resume" 
of  the  world's  history  from  the  creation  to  the  reign  of 
Charlemagne.  In  the  third  part  Bossuet  follows  the  fate  of 
the  large  empires  of  antiquity,  showing  that  human  affairs  in 
general  depend  on  providence,  but  at  the  same  time  attributing 
a  large  part  in  them  to  will  and  genius:  "A  tout  prendre,  il  en 


150  SEVENTEENTH   CENTURT- -SECOND   PERIOD 

arrive  a  pen  prh  comme  dans  le  jeu,  oil  le  plus  habik  Vemporte  & 
la  longue".  In  the  second  part  we  have  a  kind  of  apology  of 
religion,  or  rather  of  the  Catholic  religion,  the  truth  of  which 
is  proved,  according  to  Bossuet,  by  the  perpetuity  of  the  same 
tradition.  It  contains  the  essence,  as  it  were,  of  the  great 
prelate's  thought. 

In  the  Politique  tirde  de  I'Ecriture  Sainte  he  teaches  that 
kings  are  absolute,  but  nevertheless  bound  to  respect  the  rights 
and  laws  of  the  nation,  and  also  that  they  are  answerable  to 
God  for  their  actions.  Lover  of  tradition  as  he  was,  he  prefers 
a  monarchy  to  any  other  form  of  government,  yet  he  admits 
other  forms,  provided  they  are  enduring  and  likely  to  afford 
protection  to  the  subjects:  "  Je  respecte  dans  chaque  peuple,  le 
gouvernement  que  V usage  y  a  consacrd  et  que  V experience  fait  trouver 
le  mcilleur". 

Bossuet's  polemic  against  Protestantism  is  best  represented 
by  the  Histoire  des  Variations  des  Eglises  Protestantes  (1688),  a 
complement  of  the  second  part  of  the  Discours  and  of  the  Expo- 
sition de  la  Foi  Catholique  (1671).  The  title  sufficiently  indi- 
cates, that  the  author's  aim  was  to  prove  that  the  Protestant 
Church  did  not  possess  the  visibility,  the  infallibility,  or  the 
immutability  of  the  Catholic  Church,  and  that  therefore  it 
must  be  false.  In  order  to  drive  home  his  argument  he  ex- 
hibits Luther,  Zwingle,  Calvin,  Wicliffe,  Huss,  and  their  differ- 
ent doctrines  in  a  series  of  striking  pictures,  couched  in  sober 
and  vigorous  language.  The  fifteenth  and  last  book  terminates 
with  a  prayer  that  God  may  bring  back  these  rebel  sects  to 
the  flock  of  the  faithful,  although  Bossuet  is  careful  not  to 
explain  why  they  left  it. 

The  Maximes  sur  la  Come"die  (1693)  are  the  development  of 
a  letter  that  Bossuet  had  addressed  to  Father  Caffaro,  an 
ecclesiast  who,  in  a  dissertation  prefixed  to  the  comedies  of 
Boursault,  had  declared  that  a  good  Christian  could  without 
any  scruples  visit  the  theatre.  He  refutes  this  view  in  this 
little  masterpiece  of  serried  argument  and  passionate  eloquence, 
which  will  always  remain  famous  for  the  cruel  anathema  of 
Moliere:  "  La  posterity  saura  peut-etre  la  Jin  de  ce  potte  comddien, 


PROSE  151 

qui  en  jouant  son  Malade  Imaginaire  ou  son  Medecin  par  Force, 
re<*ut  la  derniere  alteinte  de  la  maladie  dont  il  mourut  pen  d'Jieures 
apres,  et  passa  des  plaisanteries  du  theatre,  parmi  lesquelles  il  rendit 
presque  le  dernier  soupir,  au  tribunal  de  Celui  qui  dit:  '  Mallieur  a 
vous  qui  riez,  car  wus  plenrerez1 ". 

His  severity  might  lead  us  to  believe  that  he  inclined  to 
Jansenism,  but  this  was  not  the  case,  although  he  is  equally 
distant  from  the  casuists  and  Jesuits :  "  Deux  maladies  danger- 
euses  out  afflige"  de  nos  jours  le  corps  de  Vfiglise;  il  a  pris  a  qudques 
docteurs  une  malheureuse  et  inhumaine  complaisance,  une  pitie1 
meurtricre,  qui  leur  a  fait  porter  des  coussins  sous  les  coudes  des 
pdcJieurs.  .  .  .  Quelques  autres,  non  mains  extremes,  ont  tenu  les 
consciences  captives  sous  des  rigueurs  tres  injustes;  il  ne  peuvent 
supporter  aucune  faiblesse;  Us  trainent  toujours  I'enfer  apres  eux  et 
ne  fulminent  que  des  anathcmes." 

Pompousness  has  become  the  traditional  term  to  apply  to 
Bossuet's  style,  but^s  a  matter  of  fact,  with  the  exception  of 
a  few  passages  in  the  funeral  orations,  it  is  simple  and  rapid, 
and  always  in  perfect  conformity  with  his  thought. 

The  Jesuit  Louis  de  Bourdaloue  (1632-1704)  was  preferred 
in  his  time  to  Bossuet  as  a  pulpit  orator.  The  only  event  of 
importance  in  his  life  was  a  mission  undertaken  after  the 
revocation  of  the  Edict  of  Nantes,  with  the  purpose  of  con- 
verting the  Protestants  of  the  south  of  France  to  the  Catholic 
Church.  His  whole  life  was  devoted  to  preaching,  confessing, 
and  consoling. 

His  prodigious  success  as  a  preacher  has  been  attributed  to 
the  allusions  his  sermons  may  contain,  but  the  primary  cause 
of  his  popularity  lay  in  the  sustained  clearness  and  simplicity 
of  his  style,  which,  while  disclaiming  all  the  artifices  of 
rhetoric,  occasionally  borders  on  dryness.  So  severe  and  out- 
spoken was  the  moral  teaching  of  the  Jesuit  that  he  may  well 
be  called  "  the  living  refutation  of  the  Provinciales  ".  Besides 
his  numerous  sermons,  he  pronounced  two  funeral  orations. 

Around  Bossuet  and  Bourdaloue  a  group  of  sacred  orators 
gather,  but  all,  with  the  exception  of  Fenelon,  are  inferior. 
Contemporary  testimony  speaks  of  the  grace  and  seductive 


152          SEVENTEENTH  CENTURY— SECOND  PERIOD 

tenderness  of  Fenelon's  homilies,  which  were  improvised  and 
never  set  down  on  paper. 

Esprit  Fleshier  (1632-1710),  the  fashionable  bishop  of  Nlmes,  and 
the  haunter  of  the  salons,  introduced  the  mannered  prettiness  of  tho 
pricieux  into  his  sermons  and  funeral  orations,  of  which  the  best  is 
that  on  the  famous  general  Turenne. 

Among  the  Protestants,  Jacques  Saurin  (1677-1730),  who  preached 
in  England  and  Holland,  took  Bossuet  as  his  model.  His  language  is 
energetic,  but  often  negligent  in  style. 


THIRD   PERIOD  (1689-1715) 
CHAPTER  I 

POETRY 

In  this  period  of  transition  poetry  practically  ceases;  versi- 
fiers are  plentiful,  but  real  poets  are  conspicuous  by  their 
absence.  Literature  develops  in  other  directions,  affording 
larger  scope  for  that  critical  and  scientific  spirit  which  was  to 
come  to  full  bloom  in  the  following  century. 


With  the  exception  of  Eegnard,  the  same  may  be  said  of 
the  drama. 

One  only  of  the  tragic  poets  of  this  period  deserves  even  a 
passing  notice. 

Antoine  de  la  Fosse  (1653-1708)  composed  one  tolerable  play,  Mardius 
(1698),  imitated  from  the  Venice  Preserved  of  the  English  dramatist 
Thomas  Otway,  who  in  turn  had  taken  his  plot  from  the  Conjuration 
des  Espagnds  contre  Venise  (1674)  of  the  abbot  of  St.  Real. 

Moliere  certainly  found  more  talented  followers  than  Cor- 
neille  or  Racine.  The  most  important  of  these  is  Francois 
Eegnard  (1655-1709),  who,  in  his  autobiographical  romance 


PROSE  153 

La  Provenqale,  describes  the  vicissitudes  of  his  early  adven- 
turous life.  There  we  read  of  his  capture  and  sale  as  a  slave 
by  Algerian  corsairs,  his  bondage  in  Constantinople,  and  his 
ransom.  After  wanderings  which  extended  even  to  Lapland, 
he  found  his  vocation  in  the  success  of  Le  Divorce  at  the 
Theatre  Italien  in  1688.  From  1696  to  1708  he  continued  to 
issue  comedies,  of  which  the  best  are:  Le  Joueur  (1696),  Le 
Distrait  (1697),  and  Le  Legataire  Universel  (1708). 

Next  to  Moliere,  Regnard  is  the  greatest  comic  writer  of 
his  age.  He  lacks  the  depth  of  characterization  of  his  illus- 
trious predecessor,  but  makes  up  largely  for  this  by  his  inex- 
haustible wit  and  gaiety.  Someone  telling  old  Boileau  one 
day  that  Regnard  was  mediocre,  he  answered:  "//  n'est  pas 
mddiocrement  gai ". 

His  style  is  the  perfection  of  comic  versification. 

Florent  Carton  Dancourt  (1661-1725)  composed  forty-seven  comedies, 
in  prose,  exhibiting  the  world  of  finance  (La  Fcmme  d' Intrigues,  1692, 
and  Les  Agioteurs,  1710),  or  the  world  of  shady  morality  (Le  Chevalier 
A  la  Mode,  1687,  and  Les  Bourgeoises  a  la  Mode,  1692).  His  plays  are 
merely  topical,  but  witty,  and  valuable  from  a  sociological  point  of  view. 


CHAPTER  III 

PROSE 

The  life  of  Jean  de  la  Bruyere,  born  in  Paris,  1645,  is 
most  uneventful.  After  having  been  chosen  to  aid  Bossuet 
in  educating  the  Dauphin,  he  became  tutor  to  the  Due  de 
Bourbon,  grandson  of  the  great  Conde,  and  received  a  pension 
from  the  Condes  until  his  death,  in  1696. 

Apart  from  the  unimportant  Dialogues  sur  le  Qutitisme  (1699), 
his  only  work  is  the  Caractcres  ou  ks  Moeurs  de  ce  Siecle  (1688), 
appended  to  a  translation  of  the  Characters  of  the  Greek  writer 
Theophrastus. 

The  book  was  revised  and  enlarged  till  it  reached  its  definite 
form,  which  consists  of  sixteen  chapters  dealing  with  literature, 
personal  merit,  women,  the  heart,  society  and  conversation, 


154          SEVENTEENTH  CENTURY— THIRD  PERIOD 

the  gifts  of  fortune,  the  town,  the  court,  men  in  high  stations, 
the  king  and  commonwealth,  man,  judgments,  fashion,  customs, 
the  pulpit,  and  in  a  closing  chapter  with  the  esprits  forts  or 
freethinkers  of  his  time.  The  Caractcres  consists  of  maxims  and 
portraits,  the  latter  increasing  rapidly  as  the  editions  were 
multiplied,  in  which  the  manners  and  certain  individualized 
types  of  his  time  are  depicted:  "I  give  back  to  the  public 
what  it  has  lent  me  ",  said  La  Bruyere.  He  was  taken  at  his 
word,  and  forthwith  the  public  appeared,  key  in  hand.  He 
protested,  but  it  must  be  acknowledged  that  in  the  majority 
of  cases  the  keys  fitted;  Cydias,  the  wit,  is  none  other  than 
Fontenelle;  Emile  masks  his  protector  Conde";  Mme  de 
Montespan  sat  for  Irene;  and  Theodecte  is  easily  identified 
as  Mme  de  Maintenon's  brother. 

La  Bruyere's  insight  into  character  is  shrewd  rather  than 
profound;  he  notes  every  outward  betrayal  or  indication  of 
the  heart  with  infinite  minuteness,  but  he  rarely  succeeds  in 
divining  its  hidden  mechanism.  He  was  above  all  things  a 
stylist,  replacing  the  classical  style  by  a  short  and  broken 
style,  which  at  its  best  recalls  Voltaire,  to  whose  judgment 
nothing  need  be  added:  "Un  style  rapide,  concis,  nerveux,  des 
expressions  pittoresques,  un  usage  tout  nouveau  de  la  langue,  mais 
qui  n'en  blesse  point  les  regies  ". 

A  herald  of  the  sceptical  infidelity  and  varied  learning  of 
the  "philosophers"  of  the  18th  century  was  the  Dictionnaire 
Hislorique  et  Critique  (1697)  of  Pierre  Bayle  (1647-1706), 
professor  of  philosophy  at  Rotterdam,  of  whom  Diderot  could 
say :  "  Nous  avons  eu  des  contemporains  des  le  regne  de  Louis  XIV". 

The  dictionary  was  originally  intended  to  be  one  of  pure 
erudition,  having  for  its  sole  objects  to  trace  and  rectify  the 
errors  in  other  dictionaries  of  the  same  class;  but  his  searching 
study  of  systems  of  philosophy  and  of  history  had  engendered 
in  Bayle  a  sort  of  scepticism,  and  thus  his  work  became  the 
arsenal  of  rationalism. 

It  consists  of  articles  on  famous  men  representing  mytho- 
logy, ancient  history,  and  geography,  the  history  of  religions, 
philosophy,  and  European  history  and  literature  during  the 


PROSE  155 

16th  and  17th  centuries,  with  copious  notes  not  infrequently 
taking  up  three-quarters  of  the  page,  and  containing  the  most 
interesting  and  original  matter.  It  should  be  noted  that 
Bayle  was  completely  ignorant  of  the  sciences,  and  that  they 
find  no  place  in  his  book.  In  this  point  he  differs  essentially 
from  his  successors,  who  found  in  them  a  consolation  for  all 
they  had  helped  to  overthrow. 

Bayle's  doctrine  aims  at  shaking  the  very  foundation  of 
religion  by  dint  of  confronting  its  teaching  with  that  of  reason, 
and  by  showing  that  morality  can  stand  without  its  aid.  But 
he  did  not  attack  his  adversaries  or  put  forth  his  ideas  openly; 
his  method  is  one  of  insinuation,  practised  generally  by  a 
system  of  references  to  other  articles  or  notes,  which  contain 
the  absolute  negation  of  the  question  he  has  just  been  dis- 
cussing with  apparent  impartiality,  or  left  undecided. 

The  leading  idea  of  the  eighteenth  century,  the  idea  of 
human  progress,  first  emerged  in  the  famous  Quarrel  of  the 
Ancients  and  Moderns,  which  had  its  origin  in  an  academic 
disputation  as  to  whether  Christian  heroism  and  Christian  faith 
afforded  more  suitable  material  for  a  Christian  poet  than  the 
history  and  fables  of  antiquity.  As  early  as  1657  the  poet  Des- 
marets  de  Saint-Sorlin  had  composed  the  epic  of  Clovis,  in  which 
none  of  the  gods  of  classical  mythology  took  any  part,  and  all 
the  supernatural  work  was  accomplished  by  the  Deity  and  the 
angels  and  devils  of  the  Christian  religion.  Desmarets,  con- 
scious that  he  was  going  against  all  hitherto  accepted  canons, 
attempted  to  defend  his  rejection  of  the  gods  of  mythology 
in  a  number  of  prefaces  and  treatises  (1670-1674),  in  which 
he  did  not  scruple  to  deal  the  ancients  more  than  one  blow. 
He  thus  tended  to  generalize  the  question,  and  by  putting  the 
whole  of  antiquity  on  trial,  he  became  the  chief  upholder  of 
the  Moderns  in  the  early  days  of  the  famous  quarrel.  On  the 
other  side  stood  Boileau,  who  replied  in  the  third  canto  of  the 
Art  Pottique  (1674)  that  the  mysteries  of  the  Christian  religion 
could  not  be  decked  out  with  the  ornaments  of  poetry  without 
loss  to  that  simple  faith  and  reverence  with  which  they  should 
be  regarded. 


156  SKVKNTEENTH  CENTURY — THIRD  PERIOD 

Shortly  before  his  death  Desmarets,  addressing  the  following 
lines  to  his  friend  Charles  Perrault  (1628-1703),  bequeathed 
his  cause  to  him : 

"  Viena  dtfendre  Perrault,  la  France  qvi  t'appelle, 
Viens  combattre  avec  moi  cette  troupe  rcbclle, 
Ce  ramas  d'ennemis  qui,  faibles  et  mutins, 
Preferent  a  nos  chants  les  ouvrages  latins  ",  &c. 

For  some  time  only  slight  skirmishes  took  place.  Finally, 
in  1687  the  battle  opened  in  earnest,  and  the  quarrel  assumed 
a  new  importance  with  Charles  Perrault's  poem  on  the  Siecle 
de  Louis  le  Grand,  which  he  read  before  the  Academy,  and  in 
which,  partly  to  flatter  the  king,  the  modern  French  poets 
were  placed  above  the  ancients.  After  the  affirmation  of  his 
thesis  Perrault  attempted  to  prove  the  truth  of  it  in  the 
famous  Parallcles  des  Anciens  et  des  Modernes  (1688-1697),  ad- 
ducing six  principal  reasons  for  the  superiority  of  the  moderns : 
The  fact  that  they  came  later;  the  greater  exactness  of  their 
psychology;  their  more  perfect  method  of  reasoning;  the  art 
of  printing;  Christianity;  and,  finally,  the  protection  of  the 
king. 

From  the  first  Fontenelle  had  sided  with  Perrault,  and 
backed  him  up  with  his  Digression  sur  les  Anciens  et  Modernes 
(1688). 

The  partisans  of  antiquity  protested,  La  Fontaine  in  the 
fipilre  a  Huet,  La  Bruyere  in  the  Caracteres,  and  Boileau  in 
the  Reflexions  sur  Longin  (1694),  which,  in  the  midst  of  much 
worthless  matter,  contains  the  most  profound  reason  for  the 
veneration  in  which  the  ancients  are  held:  "  L'antiquite"  d'un 
e'crivain  n'est  pas  un  litre  certain  de  son  mdrite,  mais  I  'antique  et 
constante  admiration  qu'on  a  toujours  cue  pour  ses  outrages  est  une 
preuve  sure  et  infaillible  qu'on  les  doit  admirer  ".  But  at  bottom 
Boileau  was  in  a  false  position;  he  was  a  modern  himself,  and 
felt  the  impossibility  of  maintaining  the  inferiority  of  the 
moderns.  He  finally  became  reconciled  to  Perrault,  and 
accepted  his  thesis,  though  in  a  modified  form,  in  the  famous 
letter  of  1700.  There  Boileau  grants  that  the  century  of 


PROSE  157 

Louis  XIV,  the  grand  siecle,  is  equal  not  to  the  whole  of  anti- 
quity, but  to  any  single  century  of  antiquity. 

The  quarrel,  which  seemed  appeased,  broke  out  again  at 
the  beginning  of  the  18th  century,  between  Houdar  de  la 
Motte,  who  had  refashioned  the  Iliad  to  suit  the  taste  of  his 
time  (1714),  and  the  learned  Mme  Dacier,  furious  at  this 
travestying  of  Homer. 

Respect  for  religion  and  antiquity  connect  the  great  divine 
Francois  de  la  Motte  Fenelon  with  the  17th  century,  but  his 
political  opinions,  his  intellectual  curiosity,  and  the  sensitive- 
ness of  his  temperament  betray  the  immediate  precursor  of 
the  18th  century. 

Fenelon.  was  born  August  6,  1651,  at  the  castle  of  Fenelon,  in  Peri- 
gord.  At  twenty  he  entered  the  seminary  of  St.  Sulpice  in  Paris,  being 
admitted  to  holy  orders  in  1675.  Three  years  later  he  was  appointed 
director  of  an  institution  for  women  converts  to  the  Catholic  faith,  and 
soon  after  placed  at  the  head  of  a  mission  sent  to  preach  among  the 
Protestants  of  Poitou.  In  1689  he  was  appointed  tutor  to  the  young 
Duke  of  Burgundy,  grandson  of  Louis  XIV,  a  position  which  he  held 
for  the  next  six  years.  Fenelon  was  a  born  teacher,  who  combined  the 
manners  of  a  grand  seigneur  with  all  the  refinements  of  an  accomplished 
churchman;  gentle,  but  also  hard  and  inflexible  if  the  case  required  it. 
This  subtlety  and  complexity  of  character  explains  the  ascendency  he 
exercised  over  his  royal  pupil,  and  all  those  who  came  in  contact  with 
him:  "II  fattait  faire  effort  pour  cesser  de  le  regarder",  says  Saint- 
Simon.  In  1695  the  king,  displeased  with  his  views  on  religion  and 
politics,  presented  him  with  the  bishopric  of  Cambrai,  more  to  get  rid  of 
him  than  to  reward  him.  From  1695  to  1699  he  was  engaged  with 
Bossuet,  his  former  friend  and  patron,  in  the  unhappy  quarrel  concerning 
the  "Quietists".  After  1699  he  lived  almost  exclusively  for  his  flock; 
but  in  the  revived  Jansenist  dispute  he  engaged  earnestly  on  the  side  of 
orthodoxy.  He  died  in  1715. 

The  varied  character  of  Fenelon's  works  is  a  proof  of  the 
originality  and  flexibility  of  his  intellect.  They  include — 

(a)  Theological  and  controversial  works,  of  which  the  chief 
are:  the  TraiU  de  V Existence  de  Dieu  (1712),  and  the  Maximes 
des  Saints  (1697).  (b)  Educational  and  moral  works:  the  TraiU 
de  V  Education  des  Filles  (written  1681,  published  1687),  besides 
the  Fables,  the  Dialogue  des  Morts,  and  the  Aventures  de  T616- 
maque  (1699),  all  composed  for  his  pupil,  (c)  Political  writings, 


158  SEVENTEENTH  CENTURY— THIRD  PERIOD 

of  which  the  most  notable  are:  the  Plans  de  Gouvernement,  and 
the  Direction  pour  la,  Conscience  d'un  Roi  (1711).  (d)  Critical 
works:  the  Dialogues  sur  V Eloquence  (1718),  and  the  Lettre  & 
I'Acadfmie  (1716). 

Of  Fenelon's  polemical  works  the  most  noteworthy  are  the 
Maximes  des  Saints,  which  led  to  his  dispute  with  Bossuet. 

In  1687  Fenelon  had  made  the  acquaintance  of  Madame 
Guyon,  the  celebrated  Quietist  mystic ;  and,  convinced  of  the 
unfairness  of  the  outcry  which  made  her  responsible  for  the 
grosser  mysticism  of  other  sects,  he  advised  her  to  submit  her 
book  on  that  subject  to  Bossuet.  In  the  condemnation  of 
Madame  Guyon's  book  by  Bossuet,  Fenelon  acquiesced;  but 
when  he  received  the  manuscript  of  that  prelate's  Instruction 
sur  les  Etats  d'Oraison,  in  which  the  points  at  issue  were  more 
fully  set  forth,  he  suddenly  changed  front  and  forestalled 
Bossuet  by  the  publication  of  the  Maximes  des  Saints,  in  which 
he  defended  certain  doctrines  of  the  Quietists,  a  sect  whose 
doctrine  inculcated  complete  abnegation  of  the  will,  and  its 
replacement  by  absolute  surrender  to  the  Divine  love. 

Bossuet  was  not  slow  to  perceive  the  dangerous  tendencies 
of  a  doctrine  which  in  theology  leads  to  indifference  towards 
dogma  by  rendering  the  priest  superfluous  as  an  intermediary 
between  God  and  man,  and  in  morals  abandons  the  mind  and 
body  to  the  instincts.  Hence  the  fury  and  bitterness  of  his 
attack,  for  according  to  him  the  whole  Church  was  at  stake. 
He  replied  to  Fenelon  in  his  Relation  sur  le  Quie"tisme  (1698), 
caused  his  book  to  be  censured  by  the  French  bishops,  and 
won  the  king  over  to  his  side.  Finally  the  matter  was  referred 
to  the  Pope,  who  issued  a  brief  in  which  twenty-three  propo- 
sitions chosen  from  the  Maximes  des  Saints  were  condemned, 
and  Fe'nelon  submitted  immediately. 

The  Traite"  de  I' Education  des  Filles  (1681),  written  for  the 
daughters  of  the  Duchess  of  Beauvillier,  makes  of  Fe'nelon  one 
of  the  founders  of  feminine  education.  It  rests  on  two  general 
principles :  the  role  which  woman  will  be  called  upon  to  play 
in  the  family  and  in  the  world,  and  on  the  development  of 
natural  gifts. 


PROSE  159 

The  leading  idea  of  the  Dialogue  des  Marts  (1699)  is  that 
politics  must  be  guided  by  moral  principles. 

The  Aventures  de  Tdemaque  (1699)  is  a  pedagogic  romance, 
combining  moral  teaching  with  instruction  in  Greek  mythology 
and  antiquities.  It  narrates  the  wanderings  of  Telemachus  in 
search  of  his  father  Ulysses,  under  the  guardianship  of  Mentor. 
Fenelon's  pupil,  for  whom  it  was  written,  is  advised  to  avoid 
an  excessive  love  of  pleasure,  war,  and  pomp,  the  very  faults 
of  the  French  monarchy  at  the  end  of  Louis  XIV's  reign. 
The  king  perceived  that  the  satire  was  meant  for  him,  and 
hence  his  anger  when  T&dmaque  was  published  surreptitiously 
in  1699.  The  politics  of  TeUmaque  are  more  or  less  Utopian, 
and  meant  to  be  so.  Fenelon's  ideas,  ideas  which  he  thought 
realizable,  are  to  be  found  in  the  Plans  de  Gouvernement — a 
limited  monarchy  in  which  the  king  can  only  demand  of  his 
subjects  what  is  necessary  for  the  good  of  the  state,  and  in 
which  power  would  be  shared  with  a  powerful  and  Christian 
nobility  mediating  between  the  crown  and  the  people.  Here, 
too,  he  was  having  a  quiet  hit  at  Louis  XIV,  under  whose  reign 
the  French  monarchy  had  become  despotic,  whereas  Fenelon's 
ideal  form  of  government  is  aristocratic  and  parliamentarian. 

The  Lettre  a  I'Acaddmie  (1716)  deserves  special  notice,  as 
being  the  most  important  critical  work  of  the  century  next 
to  Boileau's  Art  Poetique. 

Like  Boileau,  Fenelon  is  an  admirer  of  the  ancients,  but 
instead  of  formulating  rules  he  merely  gives  impressions,  some 
of  which  are  strikingly  original.  The  French  Academy,  just 
as  its  famous  Dictionary  was  approaching  completion, 'wondered 
what  it  could  do  next.  Each  of  its  forty  members  was  con- 
sulted, and  Fenelon  gave  his  opinions  in  the  Lettre  h  I'Acaddmie, 
proposing  a  grammar,  treatises  on  rhetoric,  poetics,  tragedy, 
comedy,  and  history,  and  at  the  same  time  imparting  his  views 
on  language  and  literature.  In  the  opening  chapter  he  com- 
plains of  the  poverty  of  the  language;  speaks  with  admiration 
and  regret  of  the  coloured  and  suggestive  language  of  the 
16th  century,  and  if  it  were  possible  would  go  back  to  the 
processes  of  the  Pttiade  for  enriching  it.  He  also  condemns 


160  SEVENTEENTH  CENTURY— THIRD  PERIOD 

the  use  of  rime.  In  tragedy  he  finds  too  much  pomp,  and  a 
monotonous  abuse  of  the  passion  of  love ;  in  comedy  he  attacks 
the  moral  teaching  of  Moliere,  but  cannot  help  admiring  his 
genius.  In  the  ninth  chapter,  on  history,  he  recommends  the 
resuscitation  of  the  past,  the  exposition  of  the  life  of  peoples 
and  of  the  progress  of  civilization.  A  last  chapter  is  devoted 
to  the  Ancients  and  Moderns.  Both  sides  appealed  to  Fe"nelon, 
but  he  was  careful  not  to  commit  himself,  although  his  works 
as  a  whole  point  clearly  enough  to  his  preference  for  the 
disciples  of  antiquity. 

The  line  of  the  great  pulpit  orators  of  the  17th  century  is 
closed  by 

Jean  Baptiste  Massillon  (1663-1742),  who,  by  ignoring  dogma,  ruined 
a  branch  of  literature  which  depends  upon  it  for  its  very  existence. 
Massillon  was  a  rhetorician  and  not  an  orator;  an  adept  at  suiting  religion 
to  an  audience  of  fine  ladies  and  gentlemen,  facile  and  abundant,  but 
lacking  in  force  and  fire.  His  works  comprise  over  sixty  sermons,  ten 
panegyrics,  and  six  funeral  orations,  including  that  on  Louis  XIV, 
famous  for  the  noble  simplicity  of  its  opening  words:  "God  alone  is 
great,  my  brethren  ". 

Louis  de  Eouvray,  Due  de  Saint-Simon,  was  born  at  Ver- 
sailles in  1675,  and  lived  till  1755,  but  his  work  belongs  both 
in  spirit  and  subject  to  the  17th  century. 

The  Memoir es,  which  cover  the  period  from  1691  to  1723, 
rank  him  as  the  greatest  memoir  writer  in  a  literature  which 
has  never  been  surpassed  in  that  branch.  They  were  probably 
begun  in  1694,  and  reached  their  final  form  in  1752.  On  his 
death  they  were  impounded  by  the  Foreign  Office,  and  although 
several  garbled  abstracts  and  extracts  were  in  circulation 
during  the  18th  century,  it  was  not  till  1830  that  the  first 
authentic  edition  appeared.  All  his  life  SaintrSimon  was  a 
disappointed  and  dissatisfied  man,  an  irreconciled  noble  who 
dreamed  of  the  time  when  the  high  nobility,  and  especially 
the  peers  (he  was  one  himself),  shared  the  power  with  the 
king.  Hence  his  hatred  for  Louis  XV  and  his  court,  "  ce  long 
rtgne  de  vile  bourgeoisie",  hence  his  likes,  and  especially  his  dis- 
likes, which  make  it  impossible  for  him  to  be  impartial.  But 


PROSE  161 

if  his  defects  blind  his  judgment,  they  render  his  power  of 

vision  all  the  keener,  and  no  writer  has  ever  surpassed  him 

in  making  a  vanished  past  live  again. 

His  style,  too,  is  equal  to  the  intensity  of  his  imagination; 

often  confused  and  irregular,  but  always  living  and  the  exact 

reproduction  of  his  sensations. 
We  quote  a  few  examples : — 
"Je  m'entendis  appeler  comme  de  main  en  main" 
"  Une  fumde  de  fausseU  qui  sortait  malgre"  lui  de  loutes  ses  pores." 
"  II  fait  le  vide  dans  le  rayon  oil  sa  vanity/ait  la  roue." 
"  C'ftait  une  idle  de  cour  et  un  petit  fumet  d'affaires  pour  qui  ne 

s'en  pouvait  passer" 


(11643) 


GENERAL   VIEW 

The  history  of  French  literature  in  the  18th  century  is  the 
history  of  the  revolution  which  took  place  in  social  and  politi- 
cal theories  and  ideas,,  and  in  general  modes  of  thought,  from 
the  close  of  the  reign  of  Louis  XIV  with  the  death  of  that 
monarch  in  1715,  to  the  outbreak  of  the  great  Revolution  in 
1789.  Never  was  a  period  more  important  for  the  evolution 
and  development  of  human  ideas,  and  never  was  a  literature 
more  closely  bound  up  with  the  ideas  of  its  own  day  and 
generation  than  that  of  France  during  the  epoch  of  which  we 
speak.  The  literature  of  the  whole  century  busied  itself  in 
fact  with,  comparatively  speaking,  little  else  than  those  great 
problems  of  human  life  which  were  stirring  France  to  its 
depths,  and  which  the  Revolution  was  shortly  to  blazon  forth 
to  the  whole  civilized  world.  The  great  men  of  letters  of  the 
period  were  the  teachers  and  preachers  of  their  day.  They 
did  not,  like  those  of  other  ages,  busy  themselves  with  ques- 
tions of  abstruse  philosophy,  nor  with  questions  of  aesthetics, 
nor  with  ideals  of  purely  literary  achievement.  Their  watch- 
word was  no  cry  of  "  art  for  art ".  Living  in  a  time  of  transi- 
tion, when  old  ideals  were  being  ruthlessly  swept  away,  the 
only  man  who  could  get  a  general  hearing  was  the  one  who 
had  a  new  gospel  to  preach. 

By  far  the  greatest  names  are  those  of  Voltaire  and 
Rousseau-  and  if  Voltaire  is  called  the  teacher  of  the  age, 
Rousseau  may  well  be  called  its  preacher.  As  Voltaire  was 
the  schoolmaster  of  the  18th  century,  so  Rousseau  was  its 


GENERAL   VIEW  163 

priest — the  expounder  of  its  esoteric  mysteries.  Thus,  while 
Voltaire  taught  to  all,  and  was  the  acknowledged  sovereign, 
the  followers  of  Rousseau  were  inspired  by  him  with  a  greater 
enthusiasm  and  a  deeper  conviction. 

Voltaire's  influence  was  the  wider,  Rousseau's  the  more 
profound;  and  while  Voltaire's  name  is  written  large  on  the 
whole  century,  it  was  Rousseau  who  was  the  direct  forerunner 
of  the  Revolution,  and  whose  writings  contain  in  germ  the 
doctrines  of  the  men  of  '90. 

The  history  of  Poetry  pure  and  simple  in  the  century  is  not 
a  long  one,  and  if  little  is  to  be  recorded,  still  less  can  be  said 
to  attain  the  highest  rank.  That  such  would  be  the  case  is 
only  to  be  expected  from  the  general  tendencies  of  the  century, 
for  the  philosophical  and  didactic  spirit  is  directly  opposed  to 
the  highest  achievement  in  the  field  of  pure  poetry.  Great 
verse-makers  we  should  expect,  and  do  actually  find  in  num- 
bers— one  of  them,  indeed,  among  the  greatest  masters  of  the 
art  the  world  has  ever  seen.  The  "poetry  of  reason"  was  the 
poetry  that  appealed  to  most,  and  La  Motte  in  his  declaration 
in  its  favour  was  supported  by  many  of  the  greatest  writers 
of  the  day,  and  among  them  Montesquieu  and  Buffon,  who 
looked  upon  prose  as  the  ideal  vehicle  of  thought,  and  poetry 
as  excellent  in  so  far  as  it  shared  its  obviousness  and  direct- 
ness. Prose,  they  argued,  is  best,  because  it  says  what  is  to 
be  said  in  the  briefest  and  clearest  way ;  and  rime,  and  rhythm, 
and  all  figures  of  speech,  are  bad  in  so  far  as  they  tend  to 
obscure  and  confuse.  It  must  be  admitted  that  these  extrem- 
ists were  opposed  in  form  by  the  majority  of  their  contem- 
poraries, who,  however,  while  contesting  their  views,  were 
nearly  allied  to  them  in  spirit,  and  who,  while  calling  them- 
selves poets  and  championing  the  cause  of  poetry,  were  com- 
pletely unable  to  appreciate  its  inner  meaning. 

But  in  all  those  forms  of  verse-writing  for  which  the  only 
requirements  are  great  technical  skill,  wit,  reason,  and  lucidity 
of  thought  and  conception,  many  of  these  18th-century  poets 
excelled.  They  have  never  been  surpassed  in  the  writing  of 
epistles,  satires,  criticism,  verse-pamphlets,  and  all  the  lighter 


164  EIGHTEENTH   CENTURY 

occasional  forms;  while  in  one  characteristic  branch,  the  epi- 
gram, they  have  perhaps  never  been  equalled.  But  in  all 
that  higher  part  of  poetry  which  lies  above  and  beyond  mere 
correctness  of  versification,  and  clearness,  and  even  brilliance 
of  wit,  the  century,  with  one  notable  exception  at  the  very 
end  of  the  period,  is  entirely  wanting.  More  and  more  as  the 
century  advanced  imitation  took  the  place  of  nature,  the  bor- 
rowing of  ready-made  metaphors  that  of  direct  inspiration, 
mere  words  and  paraphrase  that  of  figures  and  ideas.  And 
this  is  the  explanation  of  the  astonishing  fact  that  the  critics 
of  the  day  thought  they  had  at  last  found  their  greatest  epic 
writer  in  Voltaire,  their  greatest  lyric  poet  in  Lebrun,  and 
last  and  most  wonderful  of  all,  their  greatest  descriptive  poet 
in  that  paraphrase  personified,  Delille. 

The  Dramatic  work  of  the  century  reached,  on  the  whole, 
a  far  higher  standard  of  merit  than  its  poetry.  The  traditions 
of  the  brilliant  17th  century  were  still  living  and  powerful, 
and  dramatists  were  stimulated  both  by  the  prestige  and  the 
material  advantages  to  be  won  by  success  in  their  art.  Accord- 
ingly not  only  were  the  two  old-established  genres  of  tragedy 
and  comedy  still  cultivated,  but  an  entirely  new  type  arose 
in  the  so-called  drame. 

The  Tragedy  was  a  pure  imitation  of  that  of  the  preceding 
century,  and  rapidly  tended  to  become  stereotyped.  The 
model  of  Racine  and  the  theory  of  Boileau  were  enforced  with 
relentless  rigour,  one  man  only,  La  Motte,  making  a  bold  and 
praiseworthy  but .  unsuccessful  attempt  to  break  these  con- 
ventional shackles.  Voltaire  alone,  in  spite  of  unfavourable 
conditions,  succeeded  by  his  wonderful  cleverness  and  mar- 
vellous technique  in  giving  life  to  the  dry  bones,  and  in 
writing  tragedies  of  real  merit. 

Of  Comedy  much  better  things  are  to  be  said.  Not  only 
was  that  of  the  last  century  continued,  but  two  men  have  to 
be  noticed,  each  of  whom  introduced  a  distinct  and  original 
development.  Marivaux  was  responsible  for  a  style  which 
was  called  after  him  marivaudage,  the  main  characteristics  of 
which  are  that  love  is  placed  at  the  centre  of  interest;  love, 


GENERAL   VIEW  165 

casuistry,  and  a  certain  sentimental  introspection  taking  to  a 
great  extent  the  place  of  external  action.  Beaumarchais,  in 
works  of  supreme  merit,  introduced  upon  the  stage  an  original 
type  of  political  and  social  satire.  Lastly,  there  arose  an 
entirely  new  kind  of  dramatic  writing,  called  somewhat  vaguely 
drame,  and  sometimes  divided  into  the  two  classes  of  tragddie 
baurgeoise  and  come"die  larmoyante,  though  this  distinction  was 
neither  very  clearly  marked  nor  very  rigorously  observed. 
The  great  characteristic  of  this  new  genre,  which  was  intro- 
duced by  La  Chaussee,  was  a  mixture  of  tragic  and  comic 
elements,  rendering  possible  a  closer  reproduction  of  the  con- 
ditions of  actual  life  than  could  be  attained  under  the  old 
division  of  all  dramatic  writing  into  pure  tragedy  and  pure 
comedy.  Thus  very  considerable  activity  prevailed  in  dra- 
matic composition  in  the  18th  century,  and  though  tragedy 
had  lost  its  vital  force,  and  was  in  a  state  of  decadence, 
comedy  had  not  only  enough  vigour  to  proceed  with  energy 
along  the  old  lines,  but  such  vitality  as  to  develop  fresh  and 
original  phases,  and  even  to  give  birth  to  a  new  genus  of 
dramatic  art. 

The  Novel  occupies  a  very  important  place  in  the  literature 
of  the  century.  Not  only  did  the  "Encyclopedists"  make 
use  of  it  as  an  instrument  for  the  propagation  of  their  views 
and  philosophy,  but  there  were  three  writers  who  initiated 
new  types  of  fiction.  Le  Sage,  the  immortal  author  of  Gil 
Bias,  was  the  creator  of  the  roman  de  mceurs,  the  novel  of 
manners  and  social  conditions  rather  than  of  characters. 
Marivaux  invented  a  peculiar  type  of  love  story,  treating  of 
the  delicate  traffic  and  casuistry  of  love  in  somewhat  over- 
refined  and  elegant  language;  while  the  Abbe  PrCvost,  famous 
as  the  author  of  Manon  Lescaut,  identified  his  name  with  pathetic 
and  often  dolefully  sentimental  stories  of  love  and  adventure. 

But  the  really  important  novels  of  the  period  were  the 
didactic  ones,  the  "novels  with  a  purpose".  Each  of  the 
three  most  prominent  writers  of  the  century  wrote  such,  and 
no  literary  form  could  have  been  better  fitted  for  the  purpose, 
or  more  successful  in  their  hands.  Voltaire  in  his  many 


166  EIGHTEENTH   CENTTTRT 

short  prose  conies  expressed  his  views  on  all  the  subjects  which 
were  of  deepest  interest  to  himself  and  his  contemporaries; 
Diderot  in  his  novels,  and  especially  in  Le  Neveu  de  Eameau, 
produced  deep  and  searching  criticism  of  human  nature  and 
social  life.  Rousseau,  most  important  of  all  the  writers  of 
fiction  of  the  age,  was  not  only  the  first  writer  of  didactic 
novels  of  absolutely  first-rate  importance,  but  had  the  most 
far-reaching  influence  on  the  literature  of  France  and  of  the 
whole  of  Europe  by  the  introduction  into  literature  of  senti- 
ment and  description  of  nature.  His  fervid  passionate  language 
was  entirely  new  to  his  contemporaries,  and  had  no  small 
share  in  the  wonderful  success  and  influence  of  his  works. 
La  Nauvelle  Hdl&ise  was  the  first  novel  which  aimed  at  exer- 
cising direct  influence  on  men's  minds,  and  it  was  a  sermon 
to  which  all  listened,  and  which  thousands  obeyed.  Lastly, 
Bernardin  de  St.  Pierre,  the  disciple  of  Rousseau  in  the 
painting  of  nature,  did  for  tropical  and  exotic  scenery  what 
Rousseau  had  done  for  the  better -known  landscapes  of  the 
Alps.  Thus  in  range,  in  quantity,  and  in  excellence  of  indi- 
vidual work,  the  fiction  of  the  period  is  of  very  great  value 
and  significance. 

The  Prose  writing  other  than  fiction  shows  the  same  ten- 
dency that  has  been  remarked  in  all  other  branches,  only  that 
the  purpose  is  here  open  and  avowed,  and  not  veiled  by  the 
exigencies  of  any  form  of  art.  Already  with  Fontenelle  the 
doctrinal  spirit  begins  to  appear,  and  its  characteristics  become 
more  and  more  accentuated  with  the  growth  of  the  numbers 
and  power  of  the  philosophes,  to  culminate  eventually  in  the 
Encyclopedic. 

As  in  the  17th  century  the  great  subject  had  been  man 
and  the  study  of  the  human  heart,  the  great  interest  of  the 
18th  century  is  society  and  its  different  conditions  and  varia- 
tions. The  17th  century  had  regarded  literature  as  an  art, 
the  18th  regards  it  as  an  instrument  for  the  propagation  of 
its  views  and  the  furtherance  of  its  aims.  Those  aims  com- 
prised a  twofold  revolt — in  political  and  social  matters  a  revolt 
against  merely  traditional  and  established  authority,  and  in 


POETRY  167 

religious  matters,  in  which  they  were  under  the  influence  of 
the  English  philosophers,  known  as  the  Deists,  a  revolt  against 
established  religion  and  revelation.  Last  of  all,  in  the  Ency- 
clopedia we  see  in  a  pronounced  form  most  of  the  tendencies 
of  the  earlier  part  of  the  century;  while  it  is  not  only  a  store- 
house of  information  on  the  learning  and  interests  of  its  age, 
and  a  guide  to  the  spirit  by  \vhich  that  age  was  animated,  but 
also  a  great  monument  in  the  history  of  human  thought,  and 
one  of  the  most  striking  phenomena  in  the  whole  history  of 
literature. 

The  change  which  took  place  in  the  language  from  the 
17th  to  the  18th  century  corresponds  to  the  change  which 
took  place  in  the  literature.  The  long  period  of  the  17th 
century  is  replaced  by  a  short,  quick,  broken  phrase,  more 
easy  to  handle  and  more  suitable  for  the  rapid  treatment  of 
the  manifold  and  various  topics  which  engaged  the  attention 
of  the  great  propagandists  of  the  time. 


CHAPTEE    I 

POETRY 

First  in  point  of  time  of  the  poets  of  the  century  comes 
Jean  Baptiste  Rousseau  (1669-1741),  a  man  of  little  import- 
ance apart  from  his  literary  work.  He  was  at  one  time  a  great 
friend  of  Voltaire,  but  they  afterwards  quarrelled,  and  Eousseau 
became  the  object  of  the  bitter  onslaughts  of  his  former  friend. 
Throughout  the  18th  century  he  had  a  very  great  reputation 
as  a  lyricist,  and  no  man  was  more  reprinted  than  he.  Apart 
from  his  numerous  Odes,  which  were  mostly  panegyrical  and 
in  the  rhetorical  style  of  his  master  Boileau,  his  work  was 
a  curious  mixture  of  the  sacred  and  the  profane — paraphrases 
of  the  psalms  and  cantatas  in  startling  contrast  to  light  epistles, 
and  not  uncommonly  licentious  epigrams.  Eousseau  was  a 
disciple  of  the  Art  Pottique,  and  tried  to  make  up  by  style  for 
want  of  personal  feeling.  He  is  always  artificial  and  imper- 


1G8  EIGHTEENTH    CENTURY 

sonal,  and  his  generalizations  and  abstractions  are  opposed 
to  the  very  spirit  of  lyric  poetry.  Yet  his  verses  are  neat, 
sonorous,  and  of  considerable  technical  skill,  and  this  sufficed 
to  give  and  assure  him  a  great  reputation  with  his  own 
century. 

Alexis  Piron  (1689-1773),  though  he  did  not  write  much,  must  be 
mentioned  here  on  account  of  his  epigrams,  which  are  among  the  most 
brilliant  of  that  brilliant  century.  Many  of  them  are  directed  against 
his  fellow-authors.  They  are  whimsical,  full  of  charming  fancy,  droll 
and  comical,  little  gems  of  language,  as  polished  and  sparkling  as  human 
speech  is  capable  of  being  made. 

In  this  as  in  all  subsequent  chapters  of  this  Book  the  name 
of  Voltaire  is  written  large. 

^  Francois  Arouet  was  born  at  Paris  in  1694,  the  son  of  Maitre  Arouet, 
a  rich  notary.  The  name  of  Voltaire  he  did  not  take  till  1718.  He 
was  educated  by  the  Jesuits  at  the  Cottkge  Lends  le  Grand,  where  he 
made  some  influential  friends,  and  on  leaving  school  was  early  intro- 
duced into  the  society  of  wits  and  aristocratic  freethinkers.  Soon 
malicious  and  satirical  verses  began  to  circulate  in  his  name,  and  one  of 
these  he  had  to  thank  for  a  residence  of  eleven  months  in  the  Bastille  in 
1717.  This  steadied  him,  and  turned  his  thoughts  to  more  serious 
matters,  and  at  the  end  of  six  years'  hard  work  he  had  made  already  the 
reputation  of  the  greatest  poet  of  France^  In  1725  he  was  again  thrown 


into  the  Bastille  for  having  shown,  in  a 


nobles,  a  manly  independence  not  toleral  ed  in  those  days  in  men  of  his 


class,  and  only  left  it  at  the  end  of  five 
ferring  his  abode  to  England.  There  he 
enjoying  the  acquaintance  of  many  of  tl 
of  letters,  and  studying  English  literatur 
sophy  and  science.  These  years  were  of 


months  on  condition  of  trans- 


character  and   development,  and,  more 

respect  for  letters  finally  formed  and  esta 

During  the  four  years  following  his 


quarrel  with  one  of  the  great 


pent  the  three  years  1726-28, 
greatest  politicians  and  men 
politics,  and  above  all  philo- 

•ery  great  importance  for  his 


han  all,  English  liberty  and 
ished  his  ideas  and  ambitions, 
iturn  he  displayed  wonderful 


literary  activity  and  work  followed  work., 

In  1734  an  order  of  arrest  was  issued  against  him  on  account  of  his 
Lettres  Philosophiques,  giving  his  impressions  of  England,  and  he  fled 
from  Paris,  never  permanently  to  settle  there  again.  For  the  next  ten 
years  he  lived  at  Cirey  orf  the  Swiss  frontier  with  Madame  du  Chatelet. 
At  the  end  of  that  time  he  once  more  returned  to  Paris,  where  he  was 
loaded  with  honour  after  honour,  and  made  in  turn  Academician,  Royal 
Historiographer,  Gentleman  of  the  Chamber,  with  other  offices.  How- 
ever, after  a  time  he  quarrelled  with  Mme  de  Pompadour,  and  left  the 


POETRY  160 

court.  In  1750  he  went  on  the  invitation  of  Frederic  the  Great  to 
Berlin,  where  for  a  time  he  was  feted  like  a  king,  and  presented  with 
a  magnificent  establishment.  The  glamour,  however,  soon  wore  off, 
Voltaire's  sensitive  vanity  was  wounded,  and  in  1753  he  left  Prussia 
in  a  way  that  contrasted  painfully  with  his  triumphal  entry  three  years 
before.  After  some  wanderings  he  settled  in  1755  near  Geneva  in  a 
house  which  he  called  Les  Delices.  Soon  after  he  bought  on  the  frontier, 
but  in  France,  an  estate  at  Ferney,  and  there  passed  the  last  twenty 
years  of  his  life  in  peace,  as  the  grand  seigneur  presiding  over  the 
affairs  of  his  village,  and  as  the  sovereign  of  European  letters  receiving 
at  his  court  pilgrims  from  far  and  wide,  keeping  up  a  correspondence 
with  the  learned  and  distinguished  of  all  the  civilized  world,  and  the 
object  of  the  sentimental  idolatry  of  his  own  countrymen. 

In  1778,  at  the  age  of  eighty-four,  he  went  on  a  visit  to  Paris,  was 
received  there  with  indescribable  enthusiasm,  idolized  alike  by  high  and 
low,  and  in  the  midst  of  this  reign  of  triumph  died  after  three  months, 
his  end  being  probably  accelerated  by  the  undue  strain  and  excitement 
at  his  great  age. 

Voltaire  is  typical  of  the  poets  of  his  century,  and  the  fact 
that  he  was  considered  a  great  poet  at  all  is  a  comment  on  the 
poetical  taste  of  his  time.  Of  the  highest  poetry,  that  inde- 
finable power  of  imaginative  suggestion  which  lies  outside 
mere  correctness  of  form  and  brilliance  of  wit,  he  knew 
nothing.  In  all  kinds  for  which  a  light  and  pleasing  fancy, 
a  keen  intellect,  and  reasonableness  are  sufficient,  he  was  a 
master.  He  has  never  been  surpassed,  and  rarely  equalled, 
in  the  verse  of  gallantry,  in  the  writing  of  epistles,  and  in  all 
branches  of  what  are  known  as  vers  de  socie'tt.  In  all  such 
forms  his  wonderful  wit  is  apparent;  he  always  finds  the  word 
that  tells,  the  mot  propre.  In  all  these  genres  the  vivacity  and 
naturalness,  which  make  his  prose  so  excellent,  are  virtues. 
Yet  all  these  qualities  fail  to  make  a  great  poet,  and  when 
Voltaire  attempts  a  serious  work  it  seems  as  though  his  very 
clearness  and  limpidity  of  thought  and  his  very  mechanical 
perfection  of  form  are  against  him.  The  subtle  charm  of 
poetry  cannot  live  in  the  white  light  of  this  intellectual  glare. 
Thus  the  Henriade  (1723),  his  most  ambitious  poetic  venture, 
in  spite  of  the  wonderful  cleverness  of  many  of  its  parts,  is 
lacking  in  spontaneity,  is  too  artificial,  and  as  poetry  a  com- 
plete failure.  It  was  a  praiseworthy  attempt  on  the  part  of 


170         .  EIGHTEENTH   CENTURY 

Voltaire  to  give  his  country  a  great  epic,  and  was  hailed  by 
his  contemporaries  as  a  complete  success.  It  deals  with  the 
times  of  the  three  Henries,  Henry  III,  Henry  IV,  and  the 
Duke  of  Guise,  and  ends  with  the  battle  of  Ivry  in  1590. 

It  is  a  mere  military  narrative,  amplified  by  various  rhetorical 
devices,  dreams,  love  stories,  and  though  all  the  devices  of  epic 
poetry  are  utilized,  the  epic  spirit  is  absent.  After  a  brief 
success,  it  has  come  to  be  esteemed  at  its  true  worth.  His 
other  great  epic  attempt,  the  burlesque  La  Pucelle  (1730),  is 
less  uninteresting  merely  because  the  serious  and  pretentious 
character  has  not  to  be  kept  up,  and  he  can  give  free  play  to 
his  ever-ready  wit.  His  miscellaneous  verse-writings  are  too 
numerous  to  mention,  and  all,  whether  contes,  epistles,  satires, 
epigrams,  or  didactic  poems,  are  marked  throughout  by  the 
highest  skill  in  the  manipulation  of  verse  and  perfection  in  all 
the  externals  of  poetry,  together  with  the  almost  complete 
absence  of  the  poetic  spirit  itself. 

Houdart  de  la  Mott6  (1672-1731)  deserves  to  be  mentioned  in  con- 
nection with  his  poetical  criticism  and  theories,  and  his  verse-translation 
or  rather  adaptation  of  Homer,  in  which  he  left  out  some  half,  and 
reduced  the  rest  to  a  dead  level  of  conventionality  to  meet  the  false 
and  artificial  taste  of  his  day.  In  his  Reflexions  sur  la  Critique,  an 
answer  to  the  attacks  on  his  Homer,  he  made  some  valuable  and  sug- 
gestive remarks  on  the  dispute  of  the  "Ancients  and  Moderns",  in 
which  he  was  on  the  side  of  the  latter.  As  a  critic  he  exercised  a  con- 
siderable, and  on  the  whole  far  from  beneficial,  influence  on  his  age. 
He  wrote,  in  addition,  Odes,  mostly  on  abstract  and  moral  subjects,  dull 
methodical  discourses  more  of  the  nature  of  sermons  than  poems. 

IScouchard  Lebrun  (1729-1807),  absurdly  called  by  his 
contemporaries  "Lebrun  Pindare",  wrote  artificial  and  com- 
monplace odes  and  lyrics  in  the  manner  of  his  day.  In  these 
forms  he  was  not  particularly  different  from  numbers  of 
others.  In  his  epigrams,  however,  he  represents  the  highest 
point  to  which  the  art  was  carried  even  in  that  age  of  brilliant 
epigrammatists.  He  frequently  used  the  epigram  as  a  vehicle 
of  literary  criticism.  His  best  are  wonderful  in  their  inevit- 
able felicity  of  expression,  absolute  perfection  of  form,  and 
condensation  of  thought  without  obscurity. 


POETRY  171 

The  most  famous  exponent  of  the  art  of  writing  poems  without  poetry 
is  Jacques  Delille  (1738-1813),  who  is  almost  unreadable  now,  but 
interesting  as  typifying  a  whole  period.  He  was  born  in  Auvergne, 
but  v/ent  early  to  Paris,  where  he  was  educated  at  the  College  de  Lisieux. 
Thence  he  proceeded  to  the  University,  where  his  course  was  a  most 
brilliant  one,  and  where  he  gained  a  reputation  as  an  elegant  classical 
scholar.  After  some  translation  and  occasional  verse,  he  made  his  name 
in  1769  by  the  translation  of  the  Georgics.  Voltaire  was  delighted  with 
it,  and  christened  the  author  "  Virgilius  Delille".  The  translation,  which 
polished  out  of  Virgil  all  the  bolder  and  more  poetic  features,  and  re- 
duced him  to  a  poet  after  the  heart  of  the  18th  century,  exactly  met  the 
taste  of  the  time,  and  had  a  wonderful  reception.  A  certain  theoretical 
love  of  the  country  and  of  nature,  as  seen  from  the  windows  of  a  boudoir, 
was  the  fashionable  craze  of  the  time.  This  success  settled  Delille's 
poetic  career,  and  he  devoted  the  rest  of  his  life  to  didactic  and  de- 
scriptive poetry,  holding  from  the  death  of  Voltaire  in  1778  to  the  end 
of  his  life  the  undisputed  position  of  the  "prince  of  poets"  of  his  time. 
Delille's  best -known  work  is  the  Jardins  (1782),  while  others  which 
had  considerable  vogue,  in  addition  to  the  translation  of  the  Georyics, 
were  his  Eneide  and  Paradis  Perdu.  All  these  show  the  characteristics 
seen  in  the  Georgics.  He  is  entirely  lacking  in  the  imagination  which 
sees  nature  at  first  hand,  and  he  knows  it  only  through  the  medium  of 
literary  commonplaces.  Instead  of  the  thing  itself,  he  gives  us  an 
abstract  idea;  instead  of  a  real  description,  an  elegant  combination  of 
conventional  expressions  usually  applied  to  the  object.  Hence  his 
characteristic  feature  is  artificiality,  his  characteristic  method  para- 
phrase. Two  of  his  best-known  "definitions"  are  perhaps  those  of 
glass,  which  becomes  under  his  system,  "  le  sable,  dissous  par  des  feux 
devorants  (qui)  pour  les  palais  des  rois  britte  en  murs  transparents",  and 
sugar,  "le  mid  americain,  que  du  sue  des  roseaux  exprime  I'Africain". 
Instead  of  a  real  and  vivid  picture,  he  gives  us  a  dull  didactic  recipe  for 
the  manufacture  of  the  article  in  question.  And  this  dealer  in  the 
commonplaces  of  literature,  this  compiler  of  verse  compendiums,  was  for 
more  than  a  quarter  of  a  century  regarded  as  a  poetical  genius,  and  the 
unchallenged  laureate  of  France ! 

A  poet  who  gave  great  promise,  but  whose  career  was  cut 
short  at  the  early  age  of  twenty-nine,  was  Nicolas  Gilbert 
(1751-1780).  The  struggles  and  hardships  with  which  his 
life  was  embittered  find  an  echo  in  his  poems,  which  have 
everywhere  a  strong  undertone  of  melancholy.  Of  the  little 
that  he  left  the  best  is  contained  in  the  mournful  elegy  written 
on  his  death-bed,  Adieux  h  la  Vie,  and  in  the  verses  entitled 


172  EIGHTEENTH   CENTURY 

Ode  imitte  de  Plusieurs  Psaumes.  He  has  been  to  many,  and 
especially  to  the  Romanticists,  a  sympathetic  figure,  typifying, 
like  the  English  Chatterton,  youthful  genius  early  succumbing 
in  the  pitiless  struggle  with  fate. 

Evariste  de  Parny  (1753-1814)  was  a  poet  of  the  same  school  as 
Delille,  and  could  boast  of  the  friendship  of  the  aged  Voltaire.  He  was, 
like  his  master,  deficient  in  pure  imagination,  and  suffered  like  him  from 
the  artificial  poetic  taste  of  his  day.  Yet  some  of  his  early  works  have 
a  severe  and  simple  grace,  and  are  of  very  considerable  merit.  At  his 
best  he  is  distinctly  superior  to  Delille  at  his  best.  In  his  later  years  he 
wrote  long  didactic  Voltairian  poems,  airing  his  philosophical  and  politi- 
cal views — dull  and  of  no  poetic  value. 

The  only  truly  great  poet  of  the  period,  Andre  Marie  de 
Chenier,  does  not  appear  till  its  very  close. 

Chenier  was  born  in  the  year  1762  at  Constantinople,  where  his  father 
was  French  consul  and  commercial  envoy.  His  mother  was  a  Greek. 
In  1765,  when  Andre  was  two  and  a  half  years  old,  his  father  left 
Constantinople  and  returned  to  France,  taking  with  him  the  boy,  who 
was  never  to  see  again  the  country  of  his  birth.  The  mere  place  of  his 
birth  cannot  then  be  reckoned  among  the  influences  which  produced 
his  so-called  Hellenism,  except  in  so  far  as  it  gave  him  his  mother,  and, 
through  her,  Hellenic  blood  and  tastes.  She  was  a  learned  and  cultured 
woman,  of  a  romantic  disposition,  and  was  doubtless  of  great  importance 
for  Andre's  early  training  and  development.  On  their  return  the  Che"nier 
family  settled  in  Paris,  and  there,  with  the  exception  of  a  short  visit, 
Andre  spent  the  years  of  his  boyhood.  In  1773  he  was  sent  by  his 
father  to  the  "Cottage  de  Navarre",  and  there  made  many  friendships, 
of  which  several  lasted  throughout  the  remainder  of  his  short  life, 
while  several  of  these  school  friends  afterwards  made  some  reputation 
as  poets.  It  was  while  at  school  that  he  made  his  first  essay  in  verse, 
with  imitations  of  Homer  and  Virgil.  After  leaving  school  he  served 
for  six  months  in  the  army  at  Strasburg,  but  the  life  was  very  distasteful 
to  him,  and  he  soon  left  it. 

In  1787  he  went  to  London,  where  he  was  attached  to  the  French 
embassy.  He  spent  four  years  in  England,  and  during  this  time  studied 
carefully  the  great  English  poets,  especially  Milton,  of  whom  he  speaks 
with  the  greatest  admiration.  With  his  return  in  1790  began  his 
political  career,  and  he  threw  himself,  like  all  his  family,  with  ardour 
into  the  Revolutionary  movement,  but  the  excesses  committed  by  the 
extremists  terrified  him,  and  he  quickly  identified  himself  with  the 
moderate  party,  in  the  chief  organ  of  which,  the  Journal  de  Paris,  most 
of  Che'nier's  political  writings  appeared.  Of  these  the  most  important 


POETRY  173 

was  the  article  of  February  26,  1792,  entitled  "De  la  cause  des  dtsordres 
qui  troublcnt  la  France,  et  arrfaent  I 'tiablisserncnt  dc  la  libertt".  This 
was  practically  a  manifesto  of  the  moderate  Royalists,  and  attacked 
the  Jacobins  unmercifully.  From  this  time  Chenier  was  completely 
committed  to  his  party,  and  when  that  party  was  defeated,  and  the 
king,  Louis  XVI,  executed,  his  fate  at  the  hands  of  the  Jacobins  was 
merely  a  matter  of  time. 

On  March  7th,  1794,  he  was  suddenly  arrested  and  imprisoned  in  St. 
Lazare,  and  four  months  later  fell  beneath  the  guillotine,  two  days  only 
before  the  death  of  Robespierre,  which  would  have  saved  him. 

Chenier  is  incontestably  the  greatest  French  poet  of  the  1 8th 
century,  and  the  only  poet  of  real  worth.  During  his  lifetime 
the  only  poems  of  his  which  appeared  were  his  political  ones, 
and  it  was  not  till  1819,  long  after  his  death,  that  anything 
like  a  representative  edition  appeared.  Though  coming  at  the 
very  end  of  his  century,  he  was  more  closely  allied  in  spirit 
with  the  previous  age  than  with  the  one  about  to  dawn.  He 
was  a  classic,  and  differed  only  from  the  great  classicists  whose 
line  he  ended  in  being  more  of  an  Hellene  than  they — a  feature 
which  he  owed  to  his  mother's  nationality  and  influence.  Yet 
at  the  same  time  it  must  not  be  supposed  that  he  stood  en- 
tirely apart  from  his  own  century  and  its  materialistic  and 
didactic  tendencies.  On  the  contrary,  the  only  long  works  he 
planned  were  fully  in  the  spirit  of  the  18th  century  and  of 
the  encyclopedic  movement. 

His  poetic  work  falls  naturally  into  three  divisions : — 

(a)  The  short  poems  of  classical  form,  style,  and  subject, 
which  constitute  the  great  bulk  of  his  work. 

(V)  The  long  poems,  planned  and  partly  written,  but  all 
unfinished,  conceived  in  the  manner  and  spirit  of  the  Encyclo- 
pedists. 

(c)  The  poems  on  political  subjects,  which  occupied  the  last 
four  years  of  his  life. 

It  is  the  first  of  these  divisions  which  contains  Chenier's 
characteristic  work.  These  short  poems  all  bear  classical 
names — Eclogues,  Bucolics,  Idylls,  Elegies  and  Epistles,  and 
are  classical  in  spirit,  imagination,  and  language.  The  laii- 


174  EIGHTEENTH   CENTURY 

guage  is  throughout  graceful  and  elegant,  and  often  rises  to 
great  beauty,  while  characterized  by  the  harmony  and  sim- 
plicity of  Greek  art. 

Among  the  best  known  of  these  classical  pieces  are  La  Jeune 
Tarentine;  L'Aveugle,  the  legend  of  Homer  wandering  blind  and 
a  beggar  from  land  to  land;  and  Le  Jeune  Malade. 

The  second  division  comprises  works  in  the  spirit  of  Voltaire 
and  the  Encyclopedists,  and  we  find  Chenier  treating  the  great 
scientific  questions  and  problems  of  the  day  as  they  appealed 
to  his  poetic  imagination.  Principal  of  these  were  L'Ame'rique, 
which  was  to  be  a  poetic  geography  of  the  whole  known  world ; 
L'Hermbs,  a  poetic  universal  philosophy;  L 'Astronomic  and  La 
Superstition.  In  all  this  part  of  his  poetic  work  he  was  riot 
far  superior  to  the  many  didactic  poets  of  his  age. 

Lastly,  we  have  to  speak  of  his  poems  of  the  third  period — 
those  of  his  political  career,  when  his  attention  was  directed 
solely  to  the  present.  These  are  the  Odes  and  lambes,  in  which 
he  expressed  in  nervous  and  often  glowing  language  his 
earnest  warnings  to  his  countrymen,  or  passionate  indignation 
at  the  excesses  that  were  being  committed  in  the  name  of 
liberty. 

Of  the  Odes  the  best  known  are  the  Pindaric  Jeu  de  Paume, 
and  the  eloquent  one  addressed  to  Charlotte  Corday,  under 
whose  dagger  Marat  had  fallen,  expressing  bitter  indignation 
at  her  death. 

The  lambes1,  which  contain  some  of  his  best  verse,  were  all 
written  during  the  four  months  of  his  imprisonment  at  St. 
Lazare,  and  show  us  the  bitter  disappointment,  the  horror, 
revolt,  and  proud  defiance  which  filled  his  mind  during  this 
last  sad  period  of  his  life. 

From  the  point  of  view  of  style,  Chenier's  great  importance 
is  his  frequent  and  bold  use  of  enjambement,  which,  though 
not  unknown  before,  was  used  by  him  much  more  frequently 
and  in  a  more  pronounced  manner.  He  was  the  first  since 
the  Pldiade,  with  which  he  has  many  points  in  common,  who 

1  lambes  are  poems  of  indeterminate  length,  with  verses  of  alternately 
eight  and  twelve  syllables,  and  with  irregular  rimes. 


DRAMA  175 

in  this  way  systematically  broke  the  somewhat  monotonous 
uniformity  of  the  alexandrine,  and  gave  it  greater  lightness 
and  movement. 


CHAPTER   II 

DRAMA 

First  of  the  dramatists  of  importance  in  the  century  is 
Prosper  Jolyot  de  Crebillon  (Crebillon  Pere),  born  at  Dijon 
in  1674.  He  began  life  as  a  lawyer's  clerk,  and  his  want  of 
sound  education  and  culture  is  traceable  all  through  his  work. 
Throughout  the  first  half  of  the  century  he  produced  plays, 
and  in  his  old  age  was  set  up  as  a  rival  to  Voltaire,  to  the 
great  .annoyance  of  the  latter.  He  died  in  1762. 

His  best-known  plays  are:  Atrte  (1707),  filedre  (1708), 
and  Rhadamiste  et  Ztnobie  (1711),  the  most  famous  and  most 
characteristic  of  all. 

Cre'billon's'  work  is  rather  melodrama  than  genuine  tragedy, 
and  is  founded  in  very  great  part  on  the  usual  melodramatic 
devices  of  incognitos,  misunderstandings,  mistakes,  and  recog- 
nitions. His  general  scheme  was  to  take  some  horrible  and 
even  atrocious  subject,  and  by  skilful  manipulation  of  these 
devices  to  place  it  in  such  a  setting  as  would  satisfy  the  pro- 
prieties. So  in  presenting  to  us  in  Oreste  a  matricide,  by 
making  the  son  ignorant  of  the  fact  that  it  is  his  mother  he 
is  killing,  he  robs  the  act  of  its  extraordinary  atrociousness, 
while  leaving  the  audience  conscious  of  the  double  nature  of 
the  crime.  On  such  complications  Crebillon  builds  up  most  of 
his  plays,  and  manages  to  extract  from  the  scheme  numberless 
telling  effects  and  situations.  Yet  he  is  always  artificial  and 
conventional,  never  going  direct  to  nature  itself,  and  so  never 
attains  to  real  dramatic  truth.  His  style  is  affected,  bombastic, 
and  pretentious. 

A  writer  who  is  of  considerable  importance  for  the  history  of  the 
theatre  in  the  18th  century,  on  account  of  the  part  he  played  in  the 
revived  dispute  of  the  "  Ancients  and  Moderns  ",  is  Houdart  de  la  Motte, 


176  EIGHTEENTH   CENTURY 

previously  mentioned.  Taking  his  stand  boldly  on  the  side  of  the  latter, 
he  refused  to  admit  the  so  generally  assumed  superiority  of  the  ancients, 
and  called  in  question  the  accepted  theories  of  the  three  unities  of  time, 
place,  and  action,  and  the  necessity  of  verse  in  tragedy.  He  wrote 
himself  one  tragedy,  Inks  de  Castro  (1723),  which  had  a  very  consider- 
able success,  though  that  success  ia  no  argument  in  favour  of  his  views, 
as  he  was  inconsistent  enough  not  to  follow  them  in  his  own  work.  He 
was  the  great  light  of  the  salon1  of  the  Marquise  de  Lambert,  the 
successor  of  the  H6tel  de  Jlambouillet,  which  supported  him  in  his 
championship  of  the  moderns  against  the  ancients. 

Voltaire,  who  comes  next,  was  the  only  writer  of  tragedy 
of  real  merit  the  century  produced.  He  wrote  altogether 
more  than  fifty  plays,  many  of  which  were  acted  with  great 
success,  and  not  in  France  alone,  and  of  which  the  best  can 
still  be  read  and  seen  with  pleasure.  Although  he  is  not  en- 
tirely free  from  the  conventionality  and  melodramatic  devices 
that  we  noticed  in  Crebillon,  he  is  far  more  original,  and 
made  some  innovations  which  were  entirely  for  good.  During 
his  three  years'  stay  in  England,  he  learnt  to  know  Shake- 
speare, and  was  much  influenced  by  him,  and  it  is  to  this  influ- 
ence that  we  owe  the  chief  improvements  which  he  attempted 
in  French  tragedy.  The  principal  of  these  were  increased 
psychological  observation,  greater  life  and  action,  and  greater 
diversity  in  technique  and  local  colour.  Thus  the  scene  is 
not  confined  to  Greece  and  Eome,  but  we  are  transported  to 
America  (in  Alzire),  to  Palestine  (in  Zaire),  to  China  (in  L'Or- 
phelin  de  la  Chine).  Yet  Voltaire,  in  spite  of  his  passion  for 
the  theatre  and  the  excellence  of  his  theory  in  many  respects, 
had  unfortunately  very  little  real  dramatic  genius.  His  know- 
ledge of  the  human  heart  was  slight  and  superficial,  and — a 
greater  fault  still  in  a  dramatist — he  was  almost  entirely  in- 
capable of  objective  treatment,  that  is  to  say,  of  laying  aside 
his  own  personality  and  entering  into  the  life  and  feelings  of 
the  characters  he  portrays.  We  are  rarely  allowed  to  forget 
that  it  is  Voltaire  who  speaks,  while  often  indeed  his  plays  are 
but  instruments  for  the  propagation  of  his  rationalistic  philos- 

1  Fontenelle  and  La  Motte  reigned  in  this  salon,  while  it  was  there  that 
Marivaux  made  his  debut. 


.' 


DRAMA  177 

ophy  and  ideas,  and  the  characters  the  mouthpieces  that  voice 
his  words.  As  these  theories  and  ideas  were  at  that  day 
matters  of  burning  interest  to  all,  they  gave  living  significance 
to  his  plays,  but  now  only  serve  to  make  them  appear  flat  and 
lifeless.  What  gives  his  plays  their  undoubted  value  is  the 
excellence  of  their  workmanship,  and  the  wonderful  cleverness 
with  which  Voltaire,  as  an  experienced  playwright,  was  able 
to  adapt  them  to  the  requirements  of  the  stage.  Conse- 
quently they  give  a  much  better  impression  when  seen  than 
when  read. 

The  two  plays  which  are  universally  admitted  to  be  his  best 
are  Zaire  (1732)  and  Mtrope  (1743).  Zaire  is  noteworthy  as 
being  obviously  inspired  by  the  Othello  of  Shakespeare,  with 
the  rugged  and  terrible  force  of  the  English  play  toned  down 
by  methods  and  devices  worthy  of  Crebillon  himself;  Mtrope 
as  a  play  in  which  the  love  interest  is  excluded. 

Among  the  other  best-known  plays  of  Voltaire  are  (Edipe 
(1719),  his  first,  an  imitation  of  Sophocles;  La  Mort  de  Cesar 
(1732),  another  Shakespearian  adaptation,  and  remarkable  as 
being  entirely  without  female  characters;  Mahom,et  ou  le  Fana- 
tisme  (1742),  of  which  the  secondary  title  sufficiently  indicates 
the  tendency  of  the  play. 

With  comedy  we  come  to  much  more  important  and 
original  work,  not  least  so  being  that  of  Pierre  Chamblain 
de  Marivaux,  born  at  Paris  in  1688.  He  received  a  very 
moderate  education,  and  early  began  to  write,  his  first 
attempt,  a  tragedy,  being  a  complete  failure.  Admitted  into 
the  salons  of  the  day,  notably  that  of  Madame  de  Lambert, 
he  quickly  found  his  true  bent  in  comedies  reflecting  the  tone 
of  this  side  of  Parisian  life,  most  of  which  were  produced 
at  the  Comedie  Italienne.  He  was  in  somewhat  straitened 
circumstances  all  his  life,  and  lived  principally  by  prose 
contributions  to  different  papers  or  by  ephemeral  journals  of 
his  own.  He  died  in  1763. 

His  best-known  plays  are:  La  Surprise  de  I' Amour  (1722), 
his  first  great  success;  Le  Jen  de  V Amour  et  du  Hasard  (1730), 
Le  Legs  (1736),  Les  Fausses  Confidences  (1737),  I'fipreuve  (1740), 

(M643)  M 


178  EIGHTEENTH   CENTURY 

most  of  which  were  written  and  produced  by  the  Comtdie 
Italienne.1 

Marivaux's  avowed  intention  from  the  first  was  to  belong 
to  no  school  and  to  imitate  nobody,  and  this  originality  he 
succeeded  in  achieving.  His  method  consisted  in  taking  love 
for  the  staple  interest,  as  Racine  had  practically  done  in 
the  17th  century,  and  in  building  up  his  plays  around  it. 
But  as  it  was  not  tragedy  at  which  he  aimed,  this  love  could 
not  be  the  absolute  and  unconditional  surrender  which  must 
inevitably  lead  to  tragic  issues,  but  the  light  and  playful 
barter  which  was  more  suited  to  comedy.  It  is  in  this  barter, 
in  the  first  beginnings  of  the  passion,  in  the  reserve  and  caution, 
the  gradual  advances  and  prudent  withdrawals,  that  his  chief 
motives  are  found.  Hence  the  action  is  almost  exclusively 
interior.  He  represents  the  youth,  beauty,  and  freshness  of 
life,  the  young  ideal,  and  in  the  presentation  of  this  phase  of 
existence  Marivaux  is  quite  a  poet.  To  the  graceful,  elegant, 
refined,  and  somewhat  affected  prose  style  in  which  these 
delicate  plays  were  written  was  given  the  name  of  "  marivau- 
dage".  That  the  invention  of  this  term  was  justified  by  his 
creation  of  an  individual  style  there  is  no  doubt. 

The  name  of  Alain  Rene  Le  Sage  is  one  of  very  great 
importance  in  another  connection,  but  by  no  means  incon- 
siderable here.  He  was  born  in  Brittany  in  1668,  went  to 
Paris  to  study  law,  and  became  an  advocate  there.  He 
gained  his  living  by  writing  for  the  Thddtre  de  la  Foire  and 
the  Come'die  Italienne,  and  by  composing  novels,  &c.,  being  the 
first  really  great  writer  to  depend  on  his  pen  for  a  regular 
livelihood.  He  spent  the  last  years  of  his  life  in  retirement 
at  Boulogne-sur-Mer,  and  died  in  1747. 

His  reputation  as  a  writer  of  comedy  depends  upon  two 
pieces,  Crispin  Pdval  de  son  Maitre  (1707),  a  farcical  and 
extravagant  but  lively  and  most  uncommonly  witty  play;  and 
Turcaret  (1709),  his  masterpiece,  which  is  of  much  more  solid 
and  serious  merit.  It  appeared  in  the  middle  of  the  war  of 

1  Comedie  Italienne,  an  Italian  company  which  appeared  in  France 
during  the  second  quarter  of  the  century. 


DRAMA  179 

the  Spanish  Succession,  and  gives  a  pitiless  and  scathing  pic- 
ture of  the  terrible  corruption  which  prevailed  in  the  world  of 
finance  at  the  time.  Turcaret  is  a  traitant  and  financier  who 
is  preying  upon  society,  while  he  in  turn  is  preyed  upon  by 
others,  till  we  have  a  perfect  cycle  of  plunder  and  peculation. 
Turcaret  is  historical,  in  that  it  represents  in  this  way  a  con- 
dition rather  than  individual  characters.  In  keenness  of 
observation  and  realism  of  presentation  it  is  a  dramatic  master- 
piece. 

Philippe  Destouches  (1680-1754)  aimed  at  producing  plays  which 
should  be  serious  and  edifying,  and  only  succeeded  in  being  dull.  His 
best  are  Le  Glorieux  (1732)  and  La  Fausse  Agnes  (1736).  His  import- 
ance lies  in  the  fact  that  in  substituting  the  sentimental  for  the  humorous 
interest  in  comedy  he  was  the  immediate  precursor  of  La  Chaussee  and 
the  c&mtdie  larmoyante. 

A  man  celebrated  more  for  his  wit  than  for  his  dramatic  production 
is  Alexis  Piron  (1689-1773),  whose  Metromanie  (1738),  aimed  at  poet- 
asters, is  an  excellent  example  of  satiric  comedy,  full  of  spirit  and  wit, 
and  containing  many  lines  that  have  passed  into  proverbs. 

Another  writer  who  has  earned  a  reputation  as  the  author  of  one  good 
play  is  Jean  Gresset  (1709-1777),  to  whom  is  due  Le  Mdchant,  which 
possesses  much  the  same  qualities  as  Piron 's  satire  against  poets.  His 
best-known  work,  however,  is  the  humorous  epic  Vert-Vert  (1734),  on 
a  parrot's  life. 

Pierre  Claude  Nivelle  de  la  Chaussee  (1692-1754)  went 
further  than  Destouches,  and  wrote  plays  in  which  the  interest 
was  exclusively  pathetical  and  tragic.  In  his  earliest  comedies 
there  was  a  certain  mixture  of  the  comic  and  pathetic,  as  in 
Le  Prfjugd  &  la  Mode  (1735),  but  this  comic  element  gradually 
disappeared,  and  in  1741  he  produced  in  Melanide  a  play  in 
which  the  pathetic  reigned  alone,  and  the  comddie  larmoyante 
was  fully  established.  La  Chaussee's  comedy  takes  its  subjects 
from  ordinary  domestic  life,  with  its  little  tragedies  and  trials, 
and  is  really  nearer  to  tragedy  than  comedy — a  tragedy  on 
a  lower  plane,  a  trage'die  bourgeoise.  His  principal  dramas  are: 
La  Fausse  Antipathie  (1733),  Le  Prejugd  a  la  Mode  (1735), 
Mflanide  (1741),  La  Gauvernante  (1747). 

Diderot,  of  whom  we  shall  have  to  speak  at  far  greater 
length  elsewhere,  partly  carrying  on  the  work  of  La  Chaussee, 


180  EIGHTEENTH   CENTURY 

established  the  theory  of  the  drome  as  a  genre  of  dramatic 
writing  intermediary  between  tragedy  and. comedy.  He  ap- 
pealed for  a  closer  following  of  the  conditions  of  actual  life, 
and  greater  realism  in  the  externals  of  theatrical  representa- 
tion. Unfortunately,  his  theory  was  better  than  his  practice, 
and  his  two  dramas,  Le  Fils  Naturel  (1757)  and  Le  Pkre  de 
Famille  (1758),  are  dull  and  declamatory,  and  without  dramatic 
force. 

Most  famous  among  the  writers  of  comedy  of  the  century 
is  Beaumarchais.  a  man  whose  importance  in  his  own  day 
was  by  no  means  solely  literary. 

Pierre  Augustin  Caron  was  born  at  Paris  in  1732,  the  son  of  a 
watchmaker,  and  he  at  first  followed  his  father's  trade.  Soon,  how- 
ever, he  transferred  his  energies  to  a  larger  sphere,  managed  to  gain  a 
footing  in  the  world  of  finance,  married  a  wife  of  noble  family,  became 
ennobled  himself,  and  took  the  name  of  Beaumarchais.  Into  the  many 
vicissitudes  of  his  wonderful  life — more  wonderful  than  one  of  his  own 
plays — it  is  impossible  to  enter.  It  is  sufficient  to  mention  the  famous 
lawsuits  which  indirectly  led  him  to  fame  through  the  four  Menwircs, 
written  in  1774-1775,  in  which  he  ridiculed  his  judges  in  such  frequent 
and  witty  satire  as  to  raise  himself  at  once  to  a  pinnacle  of  literary 
celebrity.  To  the  end  of  his  life  he  continued  his  madcap  existence, 
now  up,  now  down,  now  making  fortunes,  and  now  losing  them — a 
wonderful  instance  of  a  man  who  preserved  up  to  old  age  the  buoyancy 
of  spirits  and  recklessness  of  youth.  He  died  in  1799. 

Beaumarchais'  dramatic  work  is  of  a  piece  with  his  life,  and 
his  great  creation,  the  character  of  Figaro,  we  might  almost 
call  a  dramatization  of  himself.  The  valet,  capable,  scheming, 
restlessly  active,  feeling  his  own  ability  and  embittered  by 
the  want  of  recognition  which  he  receives  at  the  hands  of 
society,  is  Beaumarchais  himself,  the  man  of  humble  birth 
whose  life  was  a  struggle  to  place  himself  on  a  level  with  men 
whom  he  felt  were  not  his  equals,  and  even  then  with  but  half 
success.  In  the  Barbier  de  Seville  (1775)  we  have  Beaumarchais' 
bold  satire  of  politics  and  society  in  its  earlier  stage,  already 
keen  and  biting,  but  not  yet  so  embittered  as  it  later  becomes. 
The  subject  is  old  as  Moliere  himself,  and  may  be  said  to  be 
the  stock  cast  of  the  Comddie  Italienne — the  guardian,  the  \vard, 


DRAMA  181 

the  lover,  and  the  valet.  All  the  characters  are  of  the  Moliere 
school  of  comedy,  and  have  nothing  very  original,  if  we  except 
that  of  Figaro. 

The  Manage  de  Figaro  is  the  Barbier  de  Seville  carried  to 
a  higher  plane.  What  in  the  earlier  play  was  scattered  satire 
on  social  evils  is  here  bold  and  open  derision  of  the  whole  state 
of  society.  The  leading  character  Figaro  has  grown,  is  bolder, 
more  determined,  and  also  more  bitter.  In  the  former,  Figaro 
was  not  dangerous,  so  long  as  he  could  live  and  laugh  at  the 
expense  of  society,  now  he  is  a  malcontent  embittered  against 
the  society  which  has  not  recognized  his  merits  at  their  true 
worth.  It  is  often  merely  the  voice  of  Beaumarchais  himself 
that  we  hear,  as  in  the  most  famous  passage  of  all:  "Parce 
que  vous  Ues  un  grand  seigneur,  vous  vous  croyez  un  grand  gtnie — 
vous  vous  etes  seulement  donnd  la  peine  de  nattre — tandis  que  moi, 
parbleu!" 

The  Manage  de  Figaro  was  finished  and  ready  for  the  stage 
in  1781,  but  permission  for  it  to  be  acted  was  refused  again 
and  again,  and  it  was  only  in  1784  that  Beaumarchais  secured 
the  license  by  irrepressible  pertinacity  and  impudence.  These 
three  years  of  delay  and  intrigue  had  raised  public  interest  to 
fever  heat,  and  the  play  had  a  perfect  storm  of  success,  running 
to  the  then  unparalleled  length  of  a  hundred  representations. 
Its  wonderful  cleverness  and  brilliant  wit  were  only  in  very 
small  part  responsible  for  this  phenomenal  reception,  the  real 
cause  lying  in  the  fact  that  it  voiced  the  burning  questions 
of  the  day,  and  expressed  for  every  man  his  own  thoughts  in 
vivid  and  telling  form.  It  is  this  aspect  of  the  Figaro  plays 
which  makes  them  not  merely  dramatic  successes,  but  epoch- 
making  works  in  the  literature  and  history  of  France. 

Many  of  the  men  who  greeted  with  frantic  applause  Figaro's 
tirades  against  privilege  and  the  privileged,  his  contrast  of  the 
solid  virtues  of  the  bourgeois  and  the  arrogant  assumption  and 
selfish  vices  of  the  grands  seigneurs,  were  to  take  part  before 
many  years  were  over  in  that  terrible  upheaval  which  was  the 
necessary  and  inevitable  result  of  the  bitter  ferment  of  hate 
and  anger  which  underlay  the  fair  exterior  of  society. 


182  EIGHTEENTH   CENTURY 

CHAPTER    III 

PROSE 

First  in  order  of  the  novelists  of  the  18th  century,  and  on 
the  whole  first  in  importance,  is  Le  Sage,  of  whose  comedies 
e  have  already  spoken.  While  most  of  his  contemporaries 
turned  towards  England,  he  turned  to  Spain,  and  it  is  to 
the  picaroon  romance  of  Spain,  a  kind  of  belated  romance  of 
chivalry,  that  the  inspiration  of  his  two  most  famous  works, 
Le  Diable  Boiteux  and  Gil  Bias,  is  to  be  traced.  But  while  the 
setting  and  many  of  the  incidents  are  borrowed  in  this  way, 
it  is  the  originality  of  his  novels  which  constitutes  their  im- 
portance, and  it  is  as  initiator  of  the  roman  de  mceurs  that  he 
ranks  as  the  leading  novelist  of  his  century. 

Le  Diable  Boiteux  (1707),  of  which  both  title  and  framework 
were  borrowed  from  a  Spanish  romancer  Guevara,  is  a  long 
string  of  adventures,  in  which  a  number  of  characters  are 
brought  before  us  in  romantic  and  often  whimsical,  but  always 
realistic  fashion.  This  realism  in  the  painting  of  the  condi- 
tions of  life  is  the  original  and  characteristic  feature  of  Le 
Sage's  novels,  and  in  his  next  and  greatest  work,  Gil  Bias,  is 
much  more  strongly  marked.  Here  Gil  Bias  in  his  many 
qualities  and  positions  serves  to  paint  so  many  conditions  of 
human  life.  This  attempt  to  represent  universal  humanity  in 
the  one  novel  is  the  cause  of  its  greatest  fault — diffuseness 
and  want  of  plan  and  uniformity.  Gil  Bias  himself  really  is 
a  number  of  different  characters,  which  have  little  in  common 
but  their  name,  while  many  of  the  minor  characters  have 
nothing  whatever  to  do  with  the  action,  and  are  merely 
dragged  in  in  order  to  contribute  by  the  story  of  their  own 
experiences  another  phase  of  the  great  comedy  of  life. 

The  first  instalment  of  Gil  Bias  appeared  in  1715,  the  last 
in  1735,  so  that  it  contains  indirectly  the  reflections  of  the 
author  during  twenty  years  of  his  life.  It  is  the  story  of  how 
the  hero  Gil  Bias  left  home  a  self-satisfied  simpleton,  with 
great  ideas  of  what  he  was  to  accomplish,  and  a  remarkably 


PROSE  183 

optimistic  idea  of  life  in  general,  and  gradually  came,  through 
many  ups  and  downs  of  fortune  and  the  buffeting  of  fate,  to 
realize  his  own  want  of  importance,  and  to  change  his  early 
optimism  for  the  discretion  and  savoir  faire  of  a  man  of  thtf 
world.  The  great  merits  of  Le  Sage's  novels,  apart  from 
their  realism,  the  result  of  his  wonderful  observation  of  life 
and  society,  are  their  universality,  their  painting  of  human 
nature  in  general  rather  than  of  the  men  of  any  particular 
time  and  country,  and  the  simple  natural  style  in  which  they 
are  written. 

Marivaux,  whose  comedies  have  also  been  discussed  in  the 
preceding  chapter,  wrote  novels  which  exhibit  the  same  general 
characteristics  as  his  plays,  a  light  and  subtle  analysis  of 
love  and  that  combination  of  matter  and  manner  to  which 
the  name  of  marivaudage  was  given.  His  two  most  important 
novels  are  Marianne  (1731-1741)  and  the  Paysan  Parvenu 
(1735-1736).  Marianne  is  of  the  highest  importance  in  the 
history  of  French  fiction  as  being  the  first  novel  in  which 
psychological  analysis,  the  painting  of  the  emotions  and 
workings  of  the  mind,  really  forms  the  main  interest.  It  is 
remarkable  also  for  the  exact  and  realistic  portrayal  of  actual 
life,  and  that  mostly  of  the  life  of  the  bourgeois  class,  or  even 
the  class  below  it. 

A  writer  whose  lasting  fame  depends  almost  entirely  on  a 
single  book  is  the  Abbe  Prevost,  the  author  of  Manon  Lescaut. 
Antoine  Fran9ois  Prevost  d'Exiles,  born  in  Picardy  in  1697, 
and  usually  known  as  the  Abbe  Prevost,  was  brought  up  by 
the  Jesuits.  He  afterwards  became  a  soldier,  then  a  Bene- 
dictine, left  that  order  irregularly,  and  having  in  consequence 
to  quit  the  country,  spent  several  unsettled  and  adventurous 
years  abroad.  He  was  for  many  years  a  laborious  writer,  pro- 
ducing many  novels,  besides  doing  much  translation,  especially 
from  English,  and  much  mere  hack-work.  He  died  in  1763. 

Prevost's  novels  show  signs  of  his  unsettled  and  adventur- 
ous life,  and  also  of  the  haste  in  which  they  were  written. 
They  are  for  the  most  part  long  and  diffuse  stories  of  adven- 
ture, in  which  love  constitutes  the  main  interest.  This  love, 


184  EIGHTEENTH   CENTURY 

however,  is  not  the  light  and  playful  philandering  of  Marivaux, 
but  a  serious  and  sometimes  sombre  passion,  which  is  often 
meant  to  draw  our  tears,  and  occasionally  is  worthy  of  doing 
so.  His  masterpiece,  and  the  only  one  of  his  many  stories 
which  is  still  famous,  is  Manon  Lescaut,  which  appeared  in 
1731  as  the  seventh  part  of  the  Mdmoires  d'un  Homme  de 
Qualitd,  of  which  the  first  part  appeared  in  1728.  It  is  the 
story  of  a  young  girl,  Manon  Lescaut,  and  the  chevalier  Des 
Grieux,  who  love  one  another  with  a  passion  which  overcomes 
all  obstacles,  and  outlives  all  the  miseries  into  which  it  leads 
them.  In  this  one  story  Prevost  has  laid  aside  all  his  usual 
diffuseness  and  sentimentality,  and  with  absolute  simplicity 
and  unpretentious  truth  to  nature  carries  on  the  touching  and 
pathetic  story  to  its  sombre  and  tragic  close. 

His  only  other  novels  we  need  mention  are  Cleveland  (1731) 
and  Le  Doyen  de  KilUrine  (1735-1740). 

As  a  mediator  between  English  and  French  literature,  and 
especially  as  the  translator  of  Richardson's  Pamela  and  Clarissa 
Harlowe,  Prevost  exercised  a  great  influence  on  the  literature 
of  his  day. 

Voltaire  tried  his  hand  at  novel  writing  as  at  all  other 
branches  of  literary  composition,  and  with  great  success,  some 
of  his  short  contes  being,  regarded  purely  as  literature,  among 
his  very  best  work. 

Like  the  other  great  leaders  of  the  philosophic  movement 
he  made  use  of  the  novel  as  a  vehicle  for  the  propagation  of 
his  philosophic  tenets,  and  found  the  form  admirably  adapted 
to  carry  the  persiflage,  innuendo  and  insinuation  of  satire 
which  constituted  his  critical  method. 

Most  famous  of  all  his  short  stories  is  Candide  (1758),  really 
inspired  by  the  terrible  earthquake  which  destroyed  Lisbon  in 
1755.  Candide,  who  has  always  been  told  by  his  preceptor 
that  everything  is  for  the  best  in  this  best  of  all  possible 
worlds,  is  disillusioned  by  the  misfortunes  of  his  life,  and  the 
story  develops  into  a  comprehensive  mockery  of  all  existing 
institutions  of  society,  and  all  the  weaknesses  and  failings  of 
mankind — a  regular  manifesto  of  pessimism. 


PROSE  185 

Other  well-known  short  contes  of  Voltaire  are  Micromegas,  a 
satire  on  scientists,  Zadig,  and  L'Homme  aux  Quarante  Ecus. 

Diderot,  of  Encyclopedic  fame,  also  attempted  prose  fiction, 
like  all  the  leading  men  of  letters  of  the  time,  and  like  theirs 
his  novels  all  had  "a  purpose".  Three  are  deserving  of  mention 
— La  Religieuse,  an  attack  on  the  convents ;  Jacques  le  Fataliste, 
inspired  by  Sterne,  the  adventures  of  the  valet  Jacques  and  his 
master,  with  a  running  fire  of  stories  told  by 'Jacques,  his 
master,  and  others;  and  last  of  all,  and  most  significant,  Le 
Neveu  de  Rameau,  the  most  consistent  and  even  of  all  his  works. 
It  takes  the  form  of  a  dialogue  between  himself  and  the 
Bohemian  who  gives  the  piece  its  title,  in  which  human  nature 
is  dissected  and  laid  bare  with  a  cynical  frankness  and  total 
lack  of  ordinary  conventional  morality. 

•f     Rousseau's  work  is  dominated  throughout  by  so  complete 

'    a  unity  of  purpose,  and  his  novels  are  so  entirely  concerned 

with  the  expression  of  his  philosophy  and  views,  that  they  will 

be  most  fitly  treated  in  connection  with  his  philosophic  work, 

of  which  they  form  an  integral  part. 

His  most  important  disciple,  however,  Jacques  Henri 
Bernardin  de  St.  Pierre  naturally  falls  in  this  chapter. 

Bernardin  de  St.  Pierre  was  born  at  Le  Havre  in  1737.  He  early 
showed  a  passionate  love  of  nature  and  animals,  a  famous  story  of  his 
childhood  well  illustrating  the  turn  of  mind  which  afterwards  declared 
itself  in  his  work.  His  father  had  taken  him  to  Rouen,  and  was 
pointing  out  the  towers  of  the  cathedral.  All  the  boy  saw,  however, 
was  the  swallows  flying  round  the  lofty  spires,  and  he  broke  silence 
with  the  exclamation,  "  Mon  Dieut  comme  dies  volent  hautl"  After 
studying  at  the  Ecole  des  Fonts  et  Chaussees,  he  travelled  as  a  kind 
of  irregular  engineer  in  many  countries,  visiting  Germany,  Holland, 
Poland,  and  Russia.  In  1768  he  was  sent  as  inginicur  dcs  colonies  to 
L'lle  de  France  (Mauritius),  but  returned  to  France  in  1771,  where  he 
made  the  acquaintance  of  Rousseau — the  most  important  event  of  his  life. 
His  literary  works  brought  him  fame,  wealth,  and  favour,  and  under 
Louis  XVI,  the  Republic,  and  the  Empire  in  turn  he  held  different 
posts  and  enjoyed  great  consideration.  He  died  in  1814. 

The  importance  of  Bernardin  de  St.  Pierre  in  literature 
is  due  above  all  to  his  painting  of  nature,  in  which,  though 


186  EIGHTEENTH    CENTURY 

inspired  by  Rousseau,  he  is  nevertheless  original.  He  repre- 
sents the  Tropics  as  Rousseau  the  Alps.  His  nature-painting 
is  warmer,  more  sensuous,  more  passionate.  His  other  liter- 
ary characteristics,  in  which  still  he  is  more  or  less  under  the 
influence  of  Rousseau,  are  his  revival  of  sentiment  and  passion 
in  opposition  to  the  rationalism  of  the  "philosophe  school"; 
his  picturesque,  highly -coloured,  and  passionate  style;  his  love 
of  nature,  and  decrying  of  society  and  civilization,  in  which  he 
almost  outdid  Jean  Jacques  himself. 

His  vocabulary  has  always  great  local  colour,  due  to  the 
large  number  of  words  he  borrowed  from  the  arts  and  sciences, 
navigation,  botany,  and,  in  short,  the  technical  expressions 
belonging  to  all  the  different  subjects  he  was  treating.  Yet 
for  all  this  his  style  is  easy,  clear,  and  harmonious. 

His  chief  works  are  the  Voyage  a  Vile  de  France  (1773)  and 
the  Etudes  de  la  Nature  (1784),  at  the  end  of  which  appeared 
as  extra  volume  Paul  et  Virginie  (1787),  while  the  Cltaumiere 
Indienne  was  likewise  introduced  into  it  in  1791. 

By  far  the  most  famous  is  Paul  et  Virginie.  It  is  the  story, 
told  in  a  direct  and  simple  narrative,  in  clear  and  harmonious 
style,  yet  with  all  the  warmth  and  colour  of  the  tropical  land 
in  which  it  is  placed,  of  the  growth  of  love  between  a  boy  and 
girl,  its  simple  course,  and  tragic  close  through  the  drowning 
of  Virginie  by  shipwreck  under  the  eyes  of  Paul.  Into  this 
simple  lyric  story  is  woven  a  picturesque  description  of  the 
tropical  scenery  and  nature  of  the  He  Bourbon,  with  its 
exotic  wealth  and  warmth,  forming  altogether  a  setting  which 
accounted  in  great  part  for  its  wonderful  success  and  popularity. 

Such  then  was  Bernardin  de  St.  Pierre,  a  disciple  of  Rous- 
seau in  the  painting  of  nature,  an  innovator  himself  in  intro- 
ducing to  his  countrymen  pictures  of  nature  in  distant  and 
unknown  lands,  and  lastly  the  man  who  handed  on  the  tradi- 
tion from  Rousseau  his  master  to  his  disciple  Chateaubriand. 

The  prose  writing,  other  than  fiction,  of  the  period  is  so 
uniform  in  spirit  that  any  sub-divisions  would  tend  rather 
to  confusion  than  to  simplicity.  The  same  scientific  and  philo- 
sophic spirit  animated  the  early  writers  oC  the  period  which 


PROSE  187 

was  so  pronounced  in  the  philosophes  proper  and  Encyclopedists 
of  the  latter  half  of  the  century. 

Bernard  le  Bovier  de  Fontenelle,  half  of  whose  life  falls 
in  the  preceding  age,  and  whose  early  work  is  in  the  spirit 
of  the  17th  century,  with  the  Entretien  sur  la  PlumliU  des 
Mondes  (1686)  entered  upon  the  philosophic  and  scientific  part 
of  his  literary  career,  and  gave  the  first  indications  of  the 
spirit  which  was  to  dominate  the  whole  of  the  18th  century. 
His  name  then  naturally  comes  at  the  head  of  this  chapter  as 
the  precursor  of  the  philosophic  and  encyclopedic  literature 
of  the  18th  century. 

Fontenelle  was  born  at  Rouen  in  1657.  He  was  a  nephew  of  Cor- 
neille,  his  mother  being  Corneille's  sister.  He  was  educated  by  the 
Jesuits,  became  a  lawyer,  bat  gave  up  his  profession,  and  went  to  Paris 
with  a  tragedy  which  turned  out  a  complete  failure.  However,  he  soon 
achieved  literary  success,  and  with  the  Entretien  sur  la  Pluralite  des 
Mondes  firmly  established  his  reputation  and  position.  He  entered  the 
Academy  in  1691,  and  in  1699  was  made  life  secretary  of  the  Academy 
of  Sciences.  He  was  a  frequenter  of  all  the  most  famous  salons,  and 
among  the  most  brilliant  and  distinguished  members  of  the  intellectual 
society  of  the  capital.  He  was  a  polished  man  of  the  world,  and  a  bril- 
liant conversationalist,  and  as  a  drawing-room  philosopher  and  scientist 
had  great  influence  on  his  age  in  popularizing  branches  of  learning 
which  had  not  before  penetrated  to  the  salons  of  the  fashionable  world. 
He  lived  to  be  nearly  a  hundred,  universally  esteemed,  and  recognized 
as  a  great  man  and  leader  of  science  and  letters.  He  died  in  1757. 

Fontenelle  began  his  literary  work  by  writing  plays, 
poetry,  pastorals,  and  other  compositions  in  the  style  of  a 
17th-century  precieux.  All  this  work  was  of  little  value,  and 
he  was  severely  handled,  and  with  good  reason,  by  the  satirists 
of  the  time.  J.  B.  Rousseau  directed  against  him  some  of  his 
most  pointed  epigrams,  while  he  figured  in  one  of  La  Bruyere's 
best-known  Caracteres  as  Cydias,  the  personification  of  the  lei 
esprit  and  prtcieux. 

However,  with  his  Entretien  sur  la  Pluralitt  des  Mondes  (1686) 
he  found  his  true  field,  and  entered  upon  the  successful  and 
useful  part  of  his  career.  This  work,  in  the  form  of  conversa- 
tions with  a  lady  of  quality,  innocent  hitherto  of  all  scientific 


188  EIGHTEENTH   CENTURY 

knowledge  —  "une  femme  qite  Von  instruit,  el  qui  n'a  jamais  oui 
parler  de  ces  choses-lk" — presents  in  easy  form  the  entire  system 
of  the  universe  as  understood  in  his  day.  It  had  the  effect  of 
spreading  enormously  the  interest  in  scientific  matters,  and 
is  epoch-making  as  the  first  great  work  of  popular  science. 
His  other  important  works  are  the  Histoire  des  Oracles  (1687), 
a  work  showing  by  the  examples  of  ancient  oracles  the  easy 
credulity  of  mankind  and  the  necessity  for  closer  investigation 
before  belief;  the  Histoire  de  I'Acad^mie,  and  the  filoges  des  Acade"- 
miciens,  the  latter  his  most  important  and  solid  production. 
Taking  advantage  of  the  Eloges  pronounced  over  the  members 
of  the  Academy  of  Science  at  their  death,  he  exposed  in  clear 
and  lucid  language  the  scientific  discoveries  they  had  made, 
and  made  them  a  medium  for  expounding  all  the  scientific 
theories  and  knowledge  of  his  day. 

Fontenelle's  influence  was  very  great  on  his  contemporaries, 
partly  owing  to  the  length  of  his  literary  life,  which  left  him 
at  the  beginning  of  the  18th  century,  and  till  the  rise  of 
Voltaire's  star,  the  unrivalled  sovereign  of  letters. 

In  spite  of  his  universality,  and  the  elegance  and  clearness 
of  his  style,  he  was  a  man  without  true  passion  either  for  art 
or  science ;  and  by  his  want  of  warmth  furthered  the  tendency 
towards  artificiality  from  which  the  language  and  literature 
already  suffered  His  true  importance  is  as  a  precursor  of  the 
scientific  and  philosophic  spirit  of  the  18th  century,  not  only 
as  a  popularizer  of  science,  but  also  as  the  initiator  of  scientific 
doubt  and  destructive  criticism.  In  his  cold,  dispassionate 
style  and  fear  of  over-credulity  we  see  the  first  signs  of  the 
spirit  which  animated  Voltaire  and  the  Encyclopedists. 
/  Next  in  order  of  the  great  prose  writers  of  the  century  is 
Charles  de  Secondat  de  Montesquieu,  the  founder  of  the  philo- 
sophy of  history  and  the  father  of  modern  scientific  history. 
In  his  scientific  investigation  and  universal  questioning  of  all 
phenomena  and  institutions  we  can  see  the  workings  of  the 
whole  philosophe  movement  in  its  early  stages. 

Montesquieu  was  born  at  the  Chateau  de  la  Brede,  near  Bordeaux, 
in  1689.     His  family  was  of  the  noblesse  de  robe,  with  a  descent  trace- 


PROSE  189 

able  for  two  and  a  half  centuries,  and  he  was  from  the  first  destined 
for  the  profession  of  the  law.  In  1714  he  became  a  counsellor  of  the 
parliament  of  Bordeaux,  and  in  1716  president.  In  1722,  the  year  after 
the  appearance  of  his  Lettres  Persanes,  he  came  to  Paris.  In  1728  he 
was  elected  to  the  Academy.  He  had  already  given  up  the  presidency 
of  the  Bordeaux  parliament,  and  soon  after  set  out  on  a  series  of  travels, 
in  order  to  gain  the  knowledge  of  the  constitutions  and  conditions  of  the 
principal  civilized  countries  which  would  be  necessary  for  the  great  work 
on  jurisprudence  which  he  already  contemplated.  He  visited  in  this 
way  Germany,  Austria,  Italy,  Switzerland,  Holland,  and  last  of  all 
England,  where  he  spent  the  years  1729-1731.  The  English  constitution 
and  English  liberty  made  a  profound  impression  upon  him,  and  had  very 
considerable  influence  on  his  great  work.  After  his  return  to  France 
he  lived  principally  at  La  Brede,  engaged  in  the  composition  of  those 
books  which  formed  the  serious  work  of  his  life.  He  died  at  Paris  in 
1755. 

Montesquieu's  life  has  been  happily  compared  to  that  of 
Montaigne,  and  a  comparison  of  the  two  will  show  an  inter- 
esting parallel  in  many  respects. 

His  early  studies  were  directed  to  natural  science,  and  in 
1721  he  published  a  Discours  sur  les  Causes  de  la  Transparence 
des  Corps,  and  also  Observations  sur  I'Histoire  Naturelle.  There 
was  nothing  remarkable  in  this  part  of  his  work,  but  in  the 
same  year  (1721)  appeared  a  book  by  him  called  Lettres 
Persanes,  which  achieved  an  immediate  and  very  great  success, 
and  decided  definitely  his  literary  career. 

The  framework  of  the  story  is  by  no  means  original.  A 
Persian,  living  in  Paris  from  1713  to  1720,  writes  letters  to 
his  friends  describing  French  society  in  all  its  aspects,  while 
his  friends  keep  him  posted  in  the  news  of  his  own  household 
and  seraglio.  Thus  there  are  two  distinct  parts — the  letters 
of  the  Persian,  of  which  the  interest  consists  in  the  picture 
of  the  social  life  of  France  at  the  period ;  and  the  letters  of  his 
friends,  through  which  runs  the  thread  of  an  intrigue  of  gal- 
lantry, to  which  was  due  in  a  considerable  measure  the  success 
of  the  book  with  the  idle  crowd.  The  essential  part,  however, 
is  the  criticism  of  French  institutions,  which  in  the  person 
of  the  Persian  he  is  able  to  make  with  great  freedom,  and 
from  an  independent  and  original  point  of  view.  Montesquieu 


100  EIGHTEENTH   CENTtTRT 

ill  ways  expressed  the  whole  of  his  thought  in  all  his  books, 
and  in  the  wide  social  and  political  satire  and  reflections  on 
government  and  jurisprudence  we  already  see  the  germs  of 
the  Esprit  des  Lois.  The  description  of  Parisian  society,  though 
bright  and  clever,  is  more  superficial 

Lastly,  the  style — brilliant,  witty,  and  in  quick,  short  sen- 
tences— marks  the  transition  from  the  long  rhetorical  period 
of  the  17th  century  to  the  short,  chopped  phrase  of  the  18th, 
of  which  we  have  already  noticed  the  beginnings  in  La  Bruyere. 
Both  from  the  point  of  view  of  style  and  also  as  the  introduc- 
tion to  the  famous  Esprit  des  Lois,  the  light,  witty,  jesting 
Lettres  Persanes,  half-novel  and  half-treatise,  mark  a  date  to  be 
remembered. 

From  1728  Montesquieu  turned  to  wholly  serious  work,  and 
he  may  be  said  to  have  passed  the  next  twenty  years  in  the 
preparation  and  writing  of  his  life's  work,  the  Esprit  des  Lois 
(1748), — the  Considerations  sur  la  Grandeur  et  Decadence  des 
Itomains,  which  appeared  in  1734,  being  only  a  preparation  for 
the  larger  work — a  part  which  occupied  all  his  interest  and 
attention  for  a  time,  and  developed  to  too  great  a  length  to  be 
included  in  the  general  frame.  In  this  work  we  get  the  wide 
and  philosophic  view  of  history,  the  drawing  of  broad  gene- 
ralizations, which  forms  the  great  importance  and  originality 
of  his  method.  His  endeavour  was  to  explain  everything,  not 
merely  to  state,  and  even  where  he  went  wrong  he  showed 
marvellous  ingenuity  in  inventing  theories  with  which  the 
facts  could  be  made  more  or  less  convincingly  to  harmonize. 
He  does  not  believe  in  blind  chance.  To  quote  his  own  words : 
"  Ce  n'est  pas  la  fortune  qui  domine  k  monde.  II  y  a  des  causes 
ge'ne'mles."  And  to  give  a  typical  case:  "Si  le  hasard  d'une 
bataille,  c'est  a  dire,  une  cause  particuliere,  a  ruin6  un  Mat,  il  y 
avail  une  cause  ge'ne'rale  qui  faisait  que  cet  Etat  devait  pdrir  par  une 
seule  bataille". 

Montesquieu  owed  much  to  Bossuet's  Discours  sur  I'Histoire 
Universelle,  especially  in  the  important  sixth  chapter,  enumer- 
ating the  causes  of  Roman  greatness.  These  characteristics 
are:  Love  of  liberty  and  fatherland,  constancy  in  difficulties, 


PROSE  191 

the  feeling  of  honour,  loyalty  to  leaders  and  to  the  state.  The 
causes  of  the  decadence:  The  cumbrous  overgrowth  of  the 
empire,  distant  wars,  and  the  luxury  which  led  to  the  general 
corruption  of  manners. 

In  style  there  is  a  great  change  from  the  lively  maliciousness 
of  the  Lettres  Persanes — here  all  is  grave  and  dignified  simplicity, 
relieved  occasionally  by  a  striking  image  or  an  unexpected  turn. 

Fourteen  years  later,  in  1748,  appeared  the  Espiit  des  Lois, 
one  of  the  most  considerable  books  of  the  whole  century.  It 
is  his  life's  work,  the  sum  total  of  his  observations  and  re- 
flections, with  the  deductions  he  had  drawn  from  the  different 
facts  and  phenomena,  historic,  political,  economic,  and  social, 
noted  during  a  long  life. 

We  shall  easily  understand  the  want  of  uniformity  of  the 
whole  when  we  remember  that  it  shows  the  work  of  a  long 
life,  and  reflects  the  many  phases  through  which  his  character 
and  development  passed.  It  is  necessary  first  of  all  to  get  a 
clear  idea  of  the  exact  meaning  of  the  title,  and  the  sense  in 
which  the  author  here  uses  the  word  loi,  and  with  this  object 
we  cannot  do  better  than  to  quote  his  own  definition :  "  Les  lois 
dans  la  signification  la  plus  etendue  sont  les  rayyporls  ndcessaires  qwi 
ddrivent  de  la  nature  des  choses",  the  necessary  relations  existing 
between  different  things  resulting  from  the  nature  of  the 
things  themselves.  Taking  the  word  loi,  then,  in  this  sense, 
the  title  is  broad  enough  to  cover  even  the  book  for  which  it 
serves,  and  which  in  general  terms  we  can  best  describe  as  a 
consideration  of  the  different  social  and  political  conditions 
under  which  men  have  ever  lived,  and  the  effect  on  them  of 
all  the  influences,  moral  or  physical,  which  are  capable  of 
affecting  them  in  any  way. 

The  work  consists  of  thirty-one  books.  It  begins  with  the  formal 
division  of  governments  into  the  three  types — republic,  monarchy,  des- 
potism— to  each  of  which  he  attributes  a  typical  principle — virtue,  honour, 
and  fear  respectively.  It  then  goes  on  to  consider  liberty  in  relation  to 
government,  and  the  way  it  is  assured  by  the  proper  balance  and  adjust- 
ment of  the  legislative  and  executive  power.  In  this  connection  he 
speaks  in  Book  XI  of  the  English  constitution  and  English  liberty,  which 
he  greatly  admired. 


192  EIGHTEENTH   CENTURY 

He  next  speaks  in  Book  XII  of  the  influence  of  external  conditions, 
such  as  climate  and  nature  of  soil,  on  constitution  and  forms  of  society, 
this  being  one  of  the  best  and  most  original  parts  of  the  whole;  after 
which  he  treats  in  turn  the  questions  of  commerce,  finance,  population, 
and  religion. 

The  last,  Books  XXVI-XXXI,  are  purely  legal  history,  dealing  with 
the  Roman  laws  of  succession,  French  law,  and  the  feudal  system. 

Thus  it  will  be  seen  that  the  work  is  no  less  stupendous  in 
range  than  wanting  in  uniformity  of  plan.  The  fact  is,  that 
Montesquieu  had  no  definite  design  for  the  whole,  but  put 
into  it,  as  into  an  encyclopedia,  all'  the  thoughts,  reflections, 
and  deductions  of  the  greater  part  of  his  life,  without  troubling 
about  the  systematic  arrangement  and  logical  sequence  of  the 
whole.  That  he  had  himself  but  a  vague  general  idea  of  the 
lesson  he  wished  to  convey  is  seen  by  the  indefinite  title  he 
gave  to  the  heterogeneous  mass.  It  was  this  very  discursive- 
ness, together  with  the  inventiveness  and  stimulating  origin- 
ality, the  happy  and  piquant  if  often  misguided  generalizations, 
the  mixture  of  philosophy  and  wit,  which  gave  the  book  its 
enormous  popularity  in  the  18th  century.  As  Fontenelle  had 
brought  science,  so  Montesquieu  brought  history,  and  philo- 
sophic history  too,  into  the  life  of  ladies  and  men  of  fashion. 
Madame  du  Deffand  hit  off  the  popular  appreciation  when  she 
called  the  Esprit  des  Lois  "  de  V esprit  sur  les  lois". 

Still,  the  book  was  an  epoch-making  one,  desultory  though 
it  was,  for  it  established  the  theory  of  the  "  continuity  of  his- 
tory", and  founded  the  philosophy  of  history.  It  deserved  its 
credit  in  its  day,  and  its  subsequent  loss  of  repute  is  easily  to 
be  understood,  and  is  due  not  so  much  to  any  fault  of  its  own, 
as  to  the  advance  of  the  science  which  it  founded,  and  which 
has  made  of  one  half  of  its  theories  and  generalizations  mere 
platitudes,  while  the  other  half  it  has  discovered  to  be  false. 

Taken  all  in  all,  then,  we  must  look  upon  Montesquieu  as 
one  of  the  weightiest  and  most  considerable  French  authors, 
not  only  of  his  own  but  of  any  century. 

X  Next  in  order  comes  Voltaire,  the  most  typical  of  the 
writers  of  the  century,  and  most  important  of  all  for  his 
prose. 


PROSE  193 

Fontenelle  and  Montesquieu  may  have  been  the  precursors 
of  the  philosdphe  movement,  and  shown  its  earliest  workings, 
but  it  was  Voltaire  who  brought  it  to  maturity,  and  with 
whose  name  it  is  identified.  We  will  speak  here  of  all  his 
prose  writings,  and  this  can  the  more  fitly  be  done  owing  to 
the  uniformity  of  spirit  by  which  they  are  pervaded. 

In  the  first  rank  among  his  serious  prose  must  be  placed 
his  historical  works.  The  first  to  appear  was  the  Histoire  de 
CJuirles  XII  (1731),  a  lively  and  brilliant  narration,  of  which 
the  interest  consists  not  in  any  philosophical  or  political 
teaching  or  views,  but  in  the  stir  of  adventures  and  battles, 
and  the  romantic  events  amid  which  the  life  of  the  Swedish 
king  was  passed.  It  is  the  first  instance  of  historical  work 
which  is  not  merely  history  but  literature.  It  is  as  interesting 
as  a  novel.  Yet  he  did  not  knowingly  sacrifice  historical 
truth  to  narrative  interest,  but  carefully  examined  all  the 
documents  and  manuscripts  obtainable  which  bore  on  the 
subject. 

This  effort  to  obtain  historical  accuracy  by  going  at  first 
hand  to  the  sources  of  information  we  see  carried  still  further 
in  his  next  work,  the  Siecle  de  Louis  XIV  (1751),  his  historical 
masterpiece.  His  admiration  for  the  monarch  and  his  reign, 
the  memory  of  its  literary  glories  and  the  favour  then  shown 
to  men  of  letters,  made  it  for  him  a  work  of  love.  Looking 
upon  the  period  with  such  sympathy  as  the  climax  of  French 
glory,  and  as  a  golden  age  of  ideal  splendour  and  prosperity, 
he  wished  to  give  a  full  account  of  this  society  and  civilization 
in  all  its  many  sides.  So  he  says  in  the  introduction:  "Ce 
n'est  pas  seulement  la  vie  de  Louis  XIV  qu'on  pretend  ictire;  on 
se  propose  un  plus  grand  objet.  On  veut  essayer  de  peindre  a  la 
posttrite,  non  les  actions  d'un  seul  homme,  mais  Vesprit  des  hommes 
dans  le  siecle  le  plus  eclair^,  qui  fut  jamais."  And  again :  "  On 
ne  s'attachera,  dans  cette-histoire,  qu'a  ce  qui  mdrite  V attention  de 
tous  les  temps  .  .  .  a  ce  qui  peut  servir  d 'instruction,  et  conseiller 
V amour  de  la  vertu,  des  arts  et  de  la  patrie  ". 

Such  being  his  ambition  he  spared  no  pains  in  acquiring  the 
necessary  knowledge  of  the  period.  In  his  youth  he  had  met 

( II 643  )  K 


194  EIGHTEENTH   CENTURY 

men  who  could  give  him  first-hand  information  on  the  subject, 
and  this  he  supplemented  by  all  the  mdmoires  and  manu- 
scripts accessible,  as  well  as  the  state  archives  to  which  as 
historiographer  royal  he  had  full  access. 

So  we  find  a  wonderful  mass  of  information  carefully  sifted 
and  arranged  with  great  clearness  and  lucidity,  an  admirable 
adjustment  of  light  and  shade,  and  a  careful  distinction  between 
the  important  and  unimportant. 

As  a  clear  conception  of  details  and  particulars  the  work 
could  not  be  surpassed.  But — and  this  qualification  is  an 
important  one — it  is  almost  entirely  lacking  in  a  conception 
of  the  unity  of  history,  and  the  connection  and  relation  of  all 
the  different  forms  of  human  activity.  He  follows  the  false 
and  unnatural  plan  of  isolating  the  different  parts  of  what 
should  be  a  complete  and  complex  picture.  So  he  announces 
himself  in  his  introduction:  " Le  gouvernement  inMrieur  sera 
traiU  &  part.  La  vie  privee  de  Louis  XIV  .  .  .  tiendra  une 
grande  place.  D'autres  articles  .  .  .  seront  pour  les  arts,  pour  les 
sciences,  pour  les  progres  de  I'esprit  humain  dans  ce  siecle.  Enfin 
on  parlera  de  I'Eglise." 

As  might  be  expected  from  this  artificial  separation  of 
things  which  have  no  such  division  in  nature,  the  whole  work 
is  formal  and  dry;  admirably  clear,  lucid,  and  definite  in  par- 
ticular, but  wanting  in  life  and  reality.  One  of  its  most  im- 
portant features  is  that  it  set  the  example  of  treating  the  arts, 
sciences,  and  letters  as  a  corporate  part  of  the  history  of  a  period. 

The  third  important  historical  work  of  Voltaire  is  the  Essai 
sur  les  Moeurs  (1756),  a  Universal  History  of  Europe  from 
Charlemagne  to  Louis  XIV.  It  takes  up  the  subject  where 
Bossuet  leaves  it  in  his  Discours  sur  I'Histoire  Universelle  jusqu'a 
I' Empire  de  Charlemagne,  but  the  spirit  is  entirely  different. 
For  Bossuet  all  things  in  the  final  issue  were  ordained  by  the 
hand  of  Providence;  Voltaire  eliminates  the  direct  interven- 
tion of  Providence  as  a  factor  in  history,  and  sets  himself  the 
much  harder  task  of  finding  the  causes  of  things  in  the  natural 
course  of  progress.  So  while  Bossuet  wrote  theological,  Vol- ' 
taire  wrote  philosophical  history. 


PROSE  195 

Voltaire's  great  interest  in  the  work  is  to  show  the  progress 
of  reason  and  the  advance  of  civilization,  while  representing 
Christianity  rather  as  the  obstacle  in  their  way.  It  is  this 
one-sidedness  and  prejudice  which  forms  the  weakness  of  the 
book,  since  it  was  impossible  for  anyone  starting  as  the  enemy 
of  Christianity  to  write  a  just  and  sympathetic  history  of  a 
period  of  which  that  religion  formed  the  chief  motive  power. 

It  is  this  want  of  sympathy,  this  inability  to  place  himself 
at  the  point  of  view  of  the  times  with  which  he  deals,  which 
makes  Voltaire  fall  short  of  being  a  great  historian.  The 
same  consideration  accounts  for  the  fact  that  the  Siecle  de 
Louis  XIV,  which  is  nearer  in  point  of  time,  and  which  had 
his  full  interest,  is  his  best  historical  work. 

All  Voltaire's  prose  works  were  written  with  a  didactic 
purpose,  and  many  with  this  object  avowed  and  with  philo- 
sophical titles.  None  of  these  were,  however,  of  very  great 
weight,  and  it  is  rather  in  his  countless  pamphlets  and  flying 
literature,  in  which  he  is,  as  it  were,  the  journalist  of  the 
philosophe  movement,  that  his  importance  as  a  philosopher  lies. 
In  Switzerland,  during  the  latter  years  of  his  life,  he  devoted 
himself  principally  to  philosophy,  and  as  leader  of  the  Ency- 
clopedic movement,  which  he  joined,  and  of  which  he  became 
virtual  chief,  exercised  enormous  influence. 

It  is  impossible  to  mention  the  countless  works  of  this  kind 
which  he  produced  during  the  last  twenty  years  of  his  life — 
the  list  would  be  too  long,  and  they  are  of  too  little  con- 
sequence individually.  We  can  only  name  the  most  important. 
Immediately  after  his  return  from  England  appeared  the 
Lettres  Philosophiques  (1733),  giving  his  reflections  on  English 
institutions  and  eulogies  of  English  liberty.  The  Didionnaire 
Philosophique  ou  la  Raison  par  Alphabet  (1764)  explains  itself 
and  its  purpose  clearly  enough ;  while  his  Questions  sur  VEncy- 
dopidie  (1770-1772)  contains  much  of  his  best  and  most  char- 
acteristic philosophical  writing.  Lastly,  we  may  mention,  as 
typical  of  his  antichristian  propaganda,  such  works  as  Dieu 
et  les  Homines  (1769),  La  Bible  enftn  expligue"e  (1776),  Traite" 
sur  la  ToUrance  (1763). 


196  EIGHTEENTH   CENTURY 

The  central  point  of  Voltaire's  philosophy  is  always  the  fight 
against  intolerance — I'infdme,  the  infamous  thing.  He  docs 
not  deny  the  existence  of  a  God  or  decry  religion,  but  he 
repudiates  all  revealed  religion.  Christianity  he  treats  without 
respect,  submitting  all  things  to  the  test  of  reason,  and  it  is 
with  this  hard  and  unyielding  criticism  of  religious  matters 
that  the  name  of  Voltaire  has  come  to  be  before  all,  and  not 
without  reason,  identified.  Yet  it  must  always  be  remembered 
that  Voltaire  Avas  not  an  atheist,  and  in  this  differed  from 
most  of  the  Encyclopedists.  What  he  claimed  was  the  right 
to  examine  all  things  independently  of  tradition  and  authority; 
to  submit  all  things  to  the  test  of  pure  reason,  and  reject 
ever}>thing  which  did  not  satisfy  its  demands. 

It  is  in  this  constitutional  hatred  of  all  merely  traditional 
or  hereditary  authority,  whether  of  church  or  state,  and  in 
this  demand  for  the  right  of  free  and  universal  inquiry  and 
examination,  that  he  is  typical  of  the  whole  age. 

Lastly,  and  not  least  important,  we  have  to  treat  of 
Voltaire's  enormous  correspondence.  We  have  no  less  than 
12,000  letters  of  his,  while  others  are  still  gradually  coming 
to  light,  and  many  have  been  irretrievably  lost. 

As  a  great  man  of  letters  for  half  a  century,  and  sovereign 
of  European  literature  for  half  that  time,  as  the  correspondent 
of  reigning  monarchs,  princes,  and  the  most  famous  writers 
and  intellectual  leaders  of  every  country  in  Europe,  he  built 
up  in  his  letters  an  enormous  compendium  of  the  ideas  of 
his  day — a  picture  of  the  life  and  thought  of  the  age  draAvn 
directly  and  at  first-hand  by  one  in  whose  capacious  mind 
every  current  of  the  time  was  reflected.  In  every  conceivable 
style,  addressed  to  people  of  almost  every  conceivable  type, 
dealing  with  almost  every  kind  of  human  condition,  they  show 
as  nothing  else  could  the  ever-ready  wit,  the  inexhaustible 
fertility  of  ideas,  the  wonderful  adaptability  and  unparalleled 
many-sidedness  of  this  phenomenon  of  versatility. 

So  we  take  leave  at  length  of  Voltaire,  after  meeting  him 
in  every  division  of  the  literature  of  the  century.  Poetry, 
drama,  fiction,  history,  philosophy,  at  all  he  tried  his  hand,  his 


PROSE  197 

insatiable  ambition  making  him  aspire  to  rule  in  all  domains. 
In  all  he  produced  work  that  was  very  high  above  the  average, 
and  in  none  did  he  produce  anything  of  supreme  merit.  If 
he  deserves  a  name  among  the  first  of  French  writers,  it  is  not 
on  account  of  any  great  original  contribution  to  literature,  but 
on  account  of  his  supreme  genius  as  a  popularizer  of  the  results 
and  thoughts  of  others.  In  this  he  has  never  been  surpassed, 
and  this  it  is  which  makes  his  name  the  most  widely  known 
in  connection  with  the  literature  of  his  century.  Though  not 
a  creator,  he  had  a  wonderful  gift  of  assimilating  the  ideas 
of  others  and  making  them  his  own,  and  this  clearness  of  con- 
ception being  associated  with  an  equal  clearness  of  style,  made 
him  the  universal  spirit  of  his  age. 

In  him  the  transition  of  style  from  17th  to  18th  century  is 
completed,  and  we  have  at  its  best  the  short,  clear,  lucid 
phrase;  while  in  two  respects,  elegant  simplicity  and  natural- 
ness, he  has  probably  never  been  equalled,  even  in  that  land 
where  the  writing  of  prose  is  a  cult  with  every  man  of  educa- 
tion. 

One  more  name  must  be  mentioned  before  we  come  to  the 
Encyclopedic  movement  proper — that  of  Luc  de  Clapiers  de 
Vauvenargues  (1715-1747),  of  a  poor  but  noble  family  of 
Provence.  He  entered  the  army,  served  in  Italy  and  Ger- 
many, and  in  Bohemia,  where  his  health  was  so  far  ruined  as 
to  necessitate  his  leaving  the  service  in  1743.  Debarred  by 
ill  health  from  an  active  career,  he  turned  his  energies  to 
literature,  spending  his  last  years  in  Paris,  where  he  died  at 
the  early  age  of  thirty -two. 

His  works  are :  the  Introduction  h  la  Connaissance  de  F  Esprit 
Humain  (1746),  Edflexions  sur  Divers  Sujets,  Conseils  a  un  Jeune 
Homme,  and  Discours  et  Caractkres,  in  the  manner  of  La  Bruyere. 
Of  these  the  only  one  finished  was  the  Introduction. 

All  Vauvenargues'  work  breathes  the  passion  of  action, 
which  he  had  been  debarred  from  satisfying  in  the  ordinary 
way,  and  to  which  he  strove  to  give  vent  in  his  literary  work. 
His  interest  lies  in  the  social  institutions  of  man,  and  the  play 
and  development  of  human  forces.  He  places  sentiment  and 


198  EIGHTEENTH   CENTUKT 

passion,  as  active  forces,  above  reason,  and  in  this  is  nearer 
akin  to  Rousseau  than  to  the  speculative  philosophes.  In  spite 
of  his  own  unhappy  fate,  he  was  an  optimist  and  fired  by  the 
enthusiasm  for  humanity — a  cheerful,  honest,  upright  charac- 
ter, with  something  of  the  simplicity  of  all  men  of  action,  and 
a  wholesomeness  of  views  that  might  have  exercised  the  best 
of  influences  on  his  century  had  he  lived  long  enough  to 
establish  his  literary  position.  As  it  was,  he  was  almost  un- 
known, and  it  was  not  till  half  a  century  later  that  he  became 
fully  appreciated.  From  his  central  doctrine,  to  which  he 
loses  no  opportunity  of  giving  prominence,  the  superiority  of 
passion  to  reason,  he  may  be  regarded,  in  a  sense,  as  the 
Rousseau  of  the  first  half  of  the  century. 

The  Encyclopedia. — The  work  in  which  all  the  philosophic 
tendencies  of  the  century  culminate  is  the  Encyclope"die,  the 
great  literary  monument  of  the  second  half  of  the  century. 

In  1740  a  French  bookseller,  Le  Breton,  was  offered  a  trans- 
lation of  the  English  Cyclopedia  of  Ephraim  Chambers,  which 
had  appeared  in  1728.  He,  however,  conceived  the  idea  of 
making  of  it  something  more  than  a  mere  translation,  and 
eventually  got  Diderot  and  D'Alembert  to  undertake,  as  joint 
editors,  the  production  of  an  encyclopedia  which,  while  on  the 
lines  of  the  English  one,  should  be  an  original  and  inde- 
pendent compendium  of  the  letters,  arts,  and  sciences  of  the 
day.  The  editors,  and  more  especially  Diderot,  set  to  work 
to  get  together  a  set  of  contributors  truly  representative, 
and  succeeded  eventually  in  enrolling  most  of  the  famous 
names  in  all  the  different  branches  of  letters.  Among  the 
regular  contributors  were  Condillac,  Helvetius,  D'Holbach, 
Grimm,  Turgot,  and  Condorcet,  while  articles  were  received 
from  Voltaire,  Buffon,  and  Montesquieu;  and  even  Rousseau, 
though  standing  aloof  on  the  whole,  was  represented  in  a 
certain  degree. 

A  prospectus  was  written  by  Diderot  explaining  its  scheme 
and  pointing  out  its  twofold  object,  namely,  as  Encyclopedia, 
to  give  an  ordered  and  systematized  account  of  all  human 
learning;  secondly,  as  Dictionnaire  raisonne"  des  Arts,  des  Sciences, 


PROSE  199 

ei  des  Metiers,  to  give  the  principles  and  essentials  of  all  arts 
and  sciences.  This  was  repeated  in  the  Discours  preliminaire 
of  D'Alembert,  an  introduction  to  the  whole,  and  an  excellent 
resumd  of  the  state  of  the  arts,  science,  and  philosophy  of  the 
day. 

The  first  two  volumes  appeared  in  1751,  but  though  at  last 
under  weigh  its  difficulties  were  by  no  means  over.  Into  the 
intrigues  which  led  to  its  frequent  suppression,  and  the  oppo- 
sition it  met  from  many  quarters,  it  is  impossible  to  enter. 
D'Alembert  lost  heart  or  patience,  and  in  1759  resigned  his 
post  as  joint  editor,  but  Diderot  toiled  manfully  on,  and  carried 
the  work  to  completion. 

The  last  and  28th  volume  appeared  in  1772. 

In  spite  of  the  many  hands  which  took  part  in  its  composi- 
tion, the  Encyclopedia  has  a  certain  unity  of  spirit,  due  partly 
to  the  similarity  of  philosophic  creed  of  its  contributors,  and 
partly  to  the  vigilant  supervision  and  direction  exercised  by 
Diderot  as  editor.  It  was  to  be,  to  quote  the  words  of  Diderot's 
prospectus,  a  "  Tableau  general  des  Efforts  de  I' Esprit  Humain 
dans  tous  les  Genres  et  dans  tons  les  Sibcles",  and  it  was  to  show 
the  progress  of  reason,  the  advance  of  civilization,  and  the 
growth  of  material  prosperity  and  advantages. 

Eationalism,  then,  was  its  watchword,  and  the  authorities 
were  not  far  wrong,  from  their  point  of  view,  in  their  repeated 
attempts  to  suppress  it,  for  its  essential  principle  was  destruc- 
tive criticism  of  all  established  authority  and  traditional 
institutions.  In  religion  its  tendency  was  still  more  destruc- 
tive, as,  even  where  frank  atheism  was  not  avowed,  Christianity 
and  revealed  religion  were  ruthlessly  set  aside. 

Its  great  importance  lies  in  the  fact  that,  taken  as  a  whole, 
it  shows  the  tendency  of  the  period,  forming  a  kind  of  mani- 
festo or  rather  code  of  philosophism,  while  in  form,  matter, 
and  manner  it  is  exactly  typical  of  the  age  in  which  it  was 
produced. 

First  and  foremost  among  the  "  encyclopedistes "  comes 
Denis  Diderot. 

Diderot  was  born  at  Langres  in  Champagne  in  1713,  the  son  of  a 


200  EIGHTEENTH   CENTURY 

cutler.  He  was  at  first  educated  by  the  Jesuits  of  his  native  town, 
but  finished  his  studies  in  Paris  at  the  College  d'Harcourt.  Destined 
originally  for  the  church,  and  afterwards  for  medicine  and  the  law,  his 
love  of  letters  made  the  adoption  of  any  profession  distasteful  to  him, 
and  he  finally  settled  down  to  support  himself  by  literature,  supplement- 
ing the  scanty  income  this  afforded  by  giving  lessons  and  doing  hack- 
work of  every  description.  In  1745  he  was  charged  with  the  editing  of 
the  Encyclopedia,  and  this,  in  spite  of  the  miserable  pay,  preserved  him 
from  actual  want.  Still,  he  was  always  in  needy  circumstances,  and 
towards  the  end  of  his  life  was  reduced  to  the  necessity  of  selling  even 
his  library.  From  this  calamity  he  was,  however,  preserved  in  an 
unexpected  and  pleasant  way,  for  Catherine  II,  empress  of  Russia, 
bought  it,  left  him  full  and  free  enjoyment  of  it,  and  in  addition  gave 
him  a  salary  as  librarian.  He  died  at  Paris  in  1784. 


Diderot's  works  consist,  in  addition  to  the  already-mentioned 
novels — La  fieligieuse,  Jacques  le  Fataliste,  Le  Neveu  de  Eameau — 
of  the  Essai  sur  le  M6rite  et  la  Vertu  (1745),  Pensdes  Philosophiques 
(1746),  Lettre  sur  les  Aveugles  a  V  Usage  de  ceux  qui  voient  (1749), 
and  the  Salons  (1764-1767);  a  large  and  varied  Correspon- 
dance,  a  thousand  and  one  fugitive  and  often  unfinished 
writings;  and  last,  and  most  important  of  all,  his  share  of  the 
Encyclope"die. 

The  Essai  sur  le  Mfaiie  et  la  Vertu  still  professes  a  kind  of 
theism,  but  by  the  time  the  Lettres  sur  les  Aveugles  appeared  in 
1749,  Diderot  had  become  openly  and  avowedly  an  atheist. 
In  this  part  of  his  work  he  is,  in  spite  of  some  originality  of 
ideas,  a  man  of  his  age,  expressing,  though  with  greater  insight 
than  most,  the  thoughts  with  which  the  atmosphere  of  his  day 
was  charged. 

The  Salons,  descriptions  of  the  exhibitions  of  the  years  1764- 
1767,  form  some  of  his  best  work,  and  gave  considerable 
impulse  to  art  criticism  in  general,  by  establishing  relations 
between  art  and  literature,  which  had  hitherto  been  almost 
entirely  dissociated.  Their  fault  is  that  they  are  too  literary, 
laying  too  great  stress  on  the  subject,  the  story  and  idea  of 
the  picture,  and  taking  too  little  account  of  the  plastic  art. 
Yet  his  great  gift  of  feeling  and  sympathy  enabled  him,  in  spite 
of  his  lack  of  technical  knowledge,  to  appreciate  the  spirit  of 


PROSE  201 

the  art  with  which  he  was  dealing.  The  key-note  of  all  his 
artistic  creed  was  strict  truth  to  nature. 

His  Correspondance,  and  especially  that  with  Mile  de  Voland, 
in  which  he  speaks  without  reserve  of  the  society  of  the  time, 
the  doings  and  circumstances  of  his  own  personal  friends,  shows 
us  the  real  Diderot,  and  enables  us  to  learn  and  understand 
perfectly  his  true  character. 

But  it  is  in  the  countless  short  fugitive  pieces,  which 
appeared  in  the  Encydoptdie  or  otherwise,  as  pamphlets,  dia- 
logues, or  in  any  other  form  which  the  thought  might  assume 
in  his  plastic  imagination  under  the  impulse  of  the  moment, 
that  we  see  the  real  literary  turn  and  typical  literary  work  of 
Diderot.  In  them  we  find  the  universal  sympathy  and  in- 
terest, and  the  rarely  equalled  versatility  both  of  conception 
and  style,  which  made  him  the  great  journalist  and  worthy 
editor  of  that  great  eighteenth-century  magazine,  the  Ency- 
doptdie. 

Of  these  shorter  writings,  many  of  which  remained  un- 
finished, while  still  more  never  received  really  literary  shape 
and  scarcely  any  literary  finish,  it  is  impossible  to  give  a  list. 
The  two  best-known,  however,  are  probably  the  Entretien  d'un 
Philosophe  avec  la  MarMiale  de***  and  Le  Ileve  de  D'Al&rribert. 

Of  his  importance  as  first  joint  and  later  sole  editor  of  the 
Encydoptdie  an  account  has  already  been  given  in  connection 
with  the  Encyclopedia  itself,  with  which  he  was  indissolubly 
bound  up,  and  which  was  to  a  great  extent  identified  with  his 
name. 

Diderot's  literary  importance  does  not  then  depend  on  any 
single  great  work  or  works,  but  upon  his  versatility  and 
universality  as  a  writer.  Above  all,  as  editor  of  the  Encydo- 
p^die  for  many  years — as  the  man  who  carried  on  the  arduous 
task  in  spite  of  all  difficulties  and  even  when  forsaken  by  his 
discouraged  partner,  and  as  the  man  who  gave  to  that  epoch- 
making  production  such  unity  as  it  possessed,  Diderot  is 
of  supreme  importance  for  the  history  of  18th-century  litera- 
ture. On  account  of  the  unfinished  and  somewhat  formless 
nature  of  much  of  his  work,  it  is  not  easy  to  understand 


202  EIGHTEENTH    CENTURY 

the  nature  of  his  literary  genius.  The  main  features  of  that 
genius  were — firstly,  a  fiery  and  enthusiastic  imagination, 
which  impelled  him  to  espouse  all  causes  and  interest  him- 
self in  all  matters  that  fell  under  his  notice;  and  secondly,  a 
peculiar  literary  impatience  which  made  him  indifferent  to 
the  form  in  which  he  clothed  the  thoughts  and  ideas  of 
which  he  felt  at  the  time  such  an  irresistible  necessity  to 
disburden  himself. 

Such  is  Diderot  in  all  his  work — a  brilliant  extemporizer,  a 
journalist  of  genius,  but  rarely  an  artist. 

Next  to  Diderot  the  most  important  representative  of  the 
philosophical  movement  is  Jean  le  Bond  d'Alembert. 

D'Alembert,  born  in  1717,  was  a  foundling  exposed  by  his  parents  on 
the  steps  of  the  church  of  St.  Jean  le  Rond  in  Paris.  He  was  brought  up 
by  the  wife  of  a  poor  glazier,  and  this  foster-mother  he  honoured  and 
respected  as  a  mother  till  her  death.  He  was  sent  to  the  College 
Mazarin,  where  he  soon  gave  evidence  of  his  great  mathematical  ability. 
At  the  age  of  twenty-four  he  was  already  a  member  of  the  Academy 
of  Sciences.  He  was  at  first  joint  editor  with  Diderot  of  the 
Encyclope'die,  but  resigned  official  connection  with  the  work  in  dis- 
couragement at  the  troubles  and  annoyances  to  which  it  was  subjected. 
An  invitation  of  Frederic  II  in  1752  to  go  to  Berlin  as  president  of  the 
Berlin  Academy,  and  that  of  Catherine  II  to  go  to  Russia  as  tutor  of  her 
son,  he  refused.  He,  however,  accepted  a  pension  from  Frederic.  In 
1772  he  became  secretary  of  the  Academy.  He  died  in  1783. 

An  important  part  of  his  work  consists  of  his  contributions 
to  the  Encyclopidie.  He  wrote  the  famous  Discours  Prilimi- 
naire,  which  is,  both  as  literature  and  philosophy,  a  work  of 
very  high  merit.  Besides  editing  the  mathematical  part  and 
contributing  mathematical  articles,  he  furnished  articles  on 
general  subjects,  one,  the  article  on  Geneva,  rendered  famous 
by  the  reply  of  Rousseau,  the  Lettre  &  M.  D'Alembert  sur  les 
Spectacles. 

Apart  from  his  many  purely  scientific  and  mathematical 
works,  his  most  important  are  the  Elements  de  Philosophic  and 
the  Eloges  des  Membres  de  VAcadtmie  Francaise,  lives  of  all  the 
members  who  had  died  since  the  beginning  of  the  century, 
written  in  his  capacity  of  secretary,  the  best-known  and  most 


PROSE  203 

readable  of  his  works.  As  literature,  however,  all  he  produced 
is  open  to  the  charge  of  dryness.  It  is  too  intellectual  and 
formal.  Indisputably  great  as  a  man  of  science  and  thinker, 
D'Alembert  has  few  of  the  qualities  that  go  to  make  literary 
greatness,  and  his  importance  in  the  literature  of  his  century 
is  due  rather  to  a  conjunction  of  unusual  circumstances,  and 
to  the  esteem  in  which  the  sciences  were  held  by  the  men  of 
letters  of  his  day,  than  to  any  purely  literary  merits  of  his 
own. 

Among  the  remaining  more  important  Encyclopedists,  the 
most  noticeable  are  Condillac,  Helvetius,  D'Holbach,  and 
Grimm. 

Etienne  Bonnot  de  Mably  de  Condillac  (1715-1780)  was 
born  of  a  noble  family  at  Grenoble,  was  an  Abbe,  and  lived  for 
the  most  part  quietly  on  his  benefice,  taking  little  part  in  the 
life  of  the  great  world  of  his  day.  His  principal  works  are: 
Essai  sur  I'Origine  des  Connaissances  Humaines  (1746)  and 
Traitd  des  Sensations  (1754). 

He  was  the  greatest  metaphysician  of  the  century,  the 
greatest  philosopher  among  the  philosophes.  He  took  up  the 
system  of  Locke,  and  carried  it  boldly  to  its  logical  extreme, 
deriving  all  ideas  from  the  sensations  directly.  He  was  a 
man  of  strong,  clear  intellect,  a  great  logician,  the  possessor 
of  a  lucid  polished  style,  and  so  in  every  way  fitted  to  be,  as 
he  was,  the  representative  in  France  of  this  "  philosophy  of  the 
senses  ". 

This  philosophy,  which  eliminates  concrete  facts,  and  deals 
only  with  sensations  and  ideas,  was  indeed  the  very  philosophy 
of  the  18th  century. 

Claude  Adrien  Helvetius  (1715-1771)  was  born  at  Paris,  became  in 
1738  farmer-general,  and  later  chamberlain  to  the  queen's  household. 
He  was  very  rich,  and  also  very  liberal,  and  kept  open  house  for  the 
philosophes.  His  reputation  depends  on  his  two  books,  Del' Esprit  (1758) 
and  De  VHommc  (1772).  The  former  caused  a  great  scandal,  owing  to 
the  uncompromising  frankness  with  which  it  professed  materialism,  pro- 
claiming all  thoughts  and  ideas  to  be  due  to  different  sensations,  and  so 
making  all  progress,  civilization,  and  spiritual  life  merely  the  outcome 
of  our  physical  conformation.  It  was  condemned  as  immoral,  and  ordered 


204  EIGHTEENTH   CENTURY 

to  be  publicly  burnt  by  the  common  hangman.  His  second  book,  De 
I'l/ommc,  was  much  inferior  in  power  and  merit,  though  it  was  no  less 
fiercely  assailed  on  its  appearance. 

The  Baron  D'Holbach  (1723-1789)  was  born  in  the  Palatinate. 
Coming  to  Paris,  he  became  the  intimate  friend  not  only  of  the  Ency- 
clopedists, but  also  of  Rousseau  and  Buffon  and  the  other  intellectual 
leaders  of  the  day.  He  was  very  hospitable  and  generous,  kept  open 
house  for  the  Encyclopedists,  and  was  otherwise  very  beneficent. 

His  one  work  is  the  Systeme  de  la  Nature  (1770),  an  exposition  of  the 
egoistic  philosophy,  which  establishes  self-interest  as  the  motive  power 
of  all  actions,  and  does  not  admit  the  existence  of  a  divine  being. 

As  a  bold  proclamation  of  pure  atheism  and  materialism  it  was  of 
considerable  importance,  and  not  only  attracted  much  attention,  but  was 
the  object  of  very  bitter  attacks. 

Frederic  Melchior  Grimm  (1723-1807)  was  a  German,  educated  at 
Leipzig,  who  came  to  Paris,  made  there  the  acquaintance  of  Rousseau 
in  1749,  and  later  of  most  of  the  Encyclopedists.  This  wide  circle  of 
literary  acquaintances,  coupled  with  his  own  great  talents,  gave  its  value 
to  his  famous  Correspondance,  which  for  a  third  of  a  century  spread  over 
a  great  part  of  Europe  information  and  enlightened  criticism  on  the  state 
of  contemporary  French  literature.  The  letters,  which  appeared  once 
a  fortnight,  and  were  distributed  to  the  different  subscribers,  among 
whom  were  Frederic  the  Great,  Catherine  II,  the  King  of  Poland,  and 
other  princes,  were  in  reality  more  like  the  literary  periodicals  of  to-day 
than  letters,  the  only  considerable  difference  being  that  these  remarkable 
productions  were  not  printed,  but  appeared  in  manuscript. 

Other  less  considerable  members  of  the  same  group  are : 

Anne  Robert  Jacques  Turgot  (1727-1781),  appointed  by  Louis  XVI 
comptroller-general  of  finance,  much  more  famous  as  the  man  who 
attempted  financial  reforms  which,  if  carried  out,  might  have  prevented 
the  great  Revolution,  than  as  a  man  of  letters.  After  the  end  of  his 
political  career  Turgot  devoted  himself  to  literature  and  science. 

His  best-known  contribution  is  the  Reflexions  sur  la  Formation  et  la 
Distribution  des  Richesses  (1766).  His  work  shows  no  great  literary 
qualities,  and  it  is  more  as  a  thinker  and  phUosophe  than  a  litterateur 
proper  that  his  name  deserves  mention  here. 

Marie  Nicolas  Caritat,  Marquis  de  Condorcet  (1743-1794),  a  dis- 
tinguished mathematician,  a  great  leader  of  the  Revolution  in  its  early 
stages,  and  president  of  the  Legislative  Assembly,  but  afterwards  as  a 
moderate,  pursued,  imprisoned,  and  probably  done  to  death,  wrote  during 
his  flight  and  concealment  his  Esquisse  dcs  Proyres  de  I  'Esprit  Humain 


PROSE  205 

(1794).  This  notable  work,  which  is  a  summary  and  rtsumt  of  the  philo- 
sophic ideas  of  the  age,  claims  universal  equality  of  privilege  and  rights, 
and  with  an  optimism  remarkable  in  a  man  in  his  position,  traces  the 
progress  of  humanity  in  face  of  tyranny  and  superstition,  and  argues  the 
ultimate  perfectibility  of  the  human  species. 

Although  Jean  Jacques  Rousseau  had  frequent  relations 
with  the  Encyclopedists,  both  hostile  and  friendly,  he  cannot 
be  classed  as  an  Encyclopedist,  but,  on  the  contrary,  stands 
alone  and  independent — an  original,  and  in  many  ways  the 
most  striking  figure  of  the  century. 

Rousseau  (1712-1778)  was  born  at  Geneva  of  a  French  Protestant 
family.  His  mother  died  while  he  was  still  an  infant,  and  he  was  left 
to  the  care  of  his  father,  a  watchmaker,  and  the  intermittent  attentions 
of  two  aunts.  His  father  was  an  idle,  irregular  character,  whose  one 
passion  in  life  was  reading,  and  that  principally  fiction  and  romance, 
a  taste  with  which  he  early  imbued  his  son. 

In  1722  the  father  was  compelled  to  move  from  Geneva,  leaving  his  son 
behind  in  the  care  of  an  uncle.  Thus  began  for  Jean  Jacques  the  restless 
and  ever-changing  life  which  continued  for  the  rest  of  his  days.  His  uncle 
first  placed  him  with  a  notary,  but  he  was  found  utterly  unfitted  for  his 
work ;  then  he  was  apprenticed  to  an  engraver,  who  ill-treated  him,  and 
Jean  Jacques,  being  very  unhappy,  in  1728  ran  away,  the  manner  of  his 
flight  being  truly  characteristic.  He  had  rambled  all  day  among  the 
beauties  of  nature,  which  he  already  loved  passionately,  and  on  returning 
to  the  city  in  the  evening  found  the  gates  shut.  This  he  accepted  as  an 
omen,  and  resolved  to  return  no  more  to  the  engraver  and  his  uncle. 
After  some  wanderings,  he  attracted  the  interest  of  a  Savoy  priest,  who 
sent  him  to  Annecy  to  Madame  de  Warens,  a  Catholic  convert  who  had 
in  turn  become  a  passionate  proselytizer  for  her  new-found  religion. 
This  was  the  beginning  of  a  patronage  which  lasted  for  thirteen  years, 
during  which  time  Rousseau  received  oft-repeated  assistance  and  kind- 
ness from  his  benefactress.  By  her  he  was  first  placed  in  a  Romanist 
hospice  at  Turin,  but  his  hopes  of  advancement  from  this  quarter  were 
vain,  for  he  was  baptized,  and  almost  immediately  afterwards  discharged. 
He  then  for  three  years  led  a  wandering  and  almost  vagabond  existence, 
gaining  his  livelihood  in  the  most  varied  capacities — as  footman,  secre- 
tary, lackey,  or  by  any  other  employment  that  came  to  hand.  In  1731 
he  returned  to  Madame  de  Warens.  The  next  ten  years  (1731-1741) 
were  spent  principally  with  his  patroness,  for  whom  he  performed  various 
services,  becoming  eventually  a  kind  of  factotum.  At  the  same  time  he 
had  various  other  employments,  among  others  being  the  teaching  of 
music.  More  important  still,  he  continued  his  communion  with  nature 


206  EIGHTEENTH  CENTURY 

and  her  beauties,  and  on  this  account  this  period  of  his  life  was  of  the 
greatest  importance  for  his  further  development. 

In  1741  he  went  to  Paris,  taking  with  him  a  comedy,  Narcisse,  and 
also  a  new  system  of  musical  notation,  neither  of  which,  however,  brought 
him  either  fame  or  profit.  Still,  he  made  the  acquaintance  of  several 
people  of  mark,  and  managed  to  keep  himself  above  actual  want,  princi- 
pally by  the  copying  of  music ;  though  it  was  not  till  1749  that  he  became 
known  with  his  Discours  sur  les  Sciences  et  les  Arts,  which  won  the  prize 
of  the  Dijon  Academy,  while  in  1753  another  essay  for  the  prize  of  the 
same  academy,  the  Discours  sur  I'lnegaliti,  finally  established  his  inde- 
pendent position  in  literature. 

The  years  1756-1762  he  passed  at  Montmorency  in  houses  lent  him  by 
Madame  d'Epinay  and  the  Due  de  Montmorency  successively,  and  in 
spite  of  the  annoyances  which  he  created  for  himself  wherever  he  went, 
these  were  among  the  happiest  and  most  productive  years  of  his  life. 
In  1762,  owing  to  the  storm  raised  by  the  publication  of  the  Contrat 
Social,  he  fled  to  Neuchatel,  but  was  driven  from  there  in  turn  by  the 
peasants,  and  took  refuge  on  the  little  lie  de  St.  Pierre  in  the  Lac 
de  Bienne.  When  the  government  of  Berne  made  that  asylum,  too, 
impossible  for  him,  he  accepted,  in  1766,  the  invitation  of  David  Hume, 
with  whom  he  stayed  for  eighteen  months,  at  the  end  of  which  time  the 
inevitable  quarrels  reached  a  climax,  and  he  left  England  and  returned 
to  France.  In  1770  he  was  once  more  in  Paris,  keeping  himself  by 
copying  music,  all  through  his  life  his  only  stable  means  of  subsistence. 
The  gloominess  which  had  been  growing  for  many  years  was  becoming 
now  a  veritable  madness,  and  he  looked  upon  himself  as  the  victim  of  an 
universal  plot  to  decry  and  dishonour  him.  Restless,  suspicious,  melan- 
choly, and  more  than  half  mad,  he  led  during  the  last  years  of  his  life  a 
wretched  existence.  In  1778  he  retired  to  a  cottage  in  the  park  of 
Ermonville,  lent  him  by  the  Marquis  de  Girardin,  and  there  he  died 
in  July  of  that  year,  with  a  suddenness  and  under  such  suspicious 
circumstances  as  to  lend  probability  to  the  belief  that  he  took  his  own 
life. 

Eousseau's  principal  works  are: — Discours  sur  les  Sciences 
et  les  Arts  (1750),  Discours  sur  VOrigine  et  les  Fondements  de 
Vlnfyalitt  parmi  les  Hommes  (1755),  Lettre  &  M.  D'Alembert  sur 
les  Spectacles  (1758),  Julie  ou  la  Nouvelle  Heloise  (1761),  Emile 
ou  I' Education  (1762),  Le  Contrat  Social  (1762),  and  the  Con- 
fessions (first  six  books  in  1782,  and  the  last  six  in  1790). 

It  was  not  till  he  was  thirty-eight  years  of  age  that  Rous- 
seau's important  literary  work  began  with  the  Discmirs  sur 
les  Arts  et  les  Sciences  (1750),  a  prose  essay  crowned  by  the 


PROSE  207 

Dijon  Academy  as  the  best  work  presented  on  the  theme 
proposed: — "Si  Vetablissement  des  sciences  et  des  arts  a  contribut 
a  tpurer  les  mceurs  ".  In  it  the  tendency  of  Eousseau's  thought 
is  already  plainly  seen,  and  though  Diderot  asserts  that  he 
suggested  to  Rousseau  a  negative  answer,  it  appears  as  if  the 
mind  of  Rousseau  would  require  no  impulse  to  make  it  decide 
upon  that  line  of  argument.  He  argues  that  civilization  is 
an  evil  because  it  leads  man  away  from  nature,  and  that  all 
the  so-called  progress  of  the  human  mind,  its  arts,  sciences, 
and  philosophies,  have  been  in  reality  harmful,  as  sapping  the 
original  and  primitive  virtue  of  man. 

In  1755  he  carried  on  and  still  further  developed  the  same 
theme,  in  his  Discours  sur  I'Origine  et  les  Fondements  de  I'lnfya- 
litt  parmi  les  Hommes,  which  finally  established  his  position  as 
a  writer.  In  it  he  attributes  to  the  institution  of  property 
all  the  ills  which  he  argues  to  be  the  result  of  civilization. 
He  says:  "  Le  premier  qui,  ay  ant  enclos  un  terrain,  s'avisa  de  dire: 
Ceci  est  a  moi .  .  .  fut  le  vrai  fondateur  de  la  sociitt  civile".  From 
the  resulting  inequality  came  tyranny  and  slavery,  vice  and 
unhappiness.  And  as  the  natural  sequence  of  all  this  he  goes 
on  to  assert  his  favourite  doctrine  of  the  perfection  of  the 
savage  state,  and  the  evils  of  civilization  as  leading  man  away 
from  the  condition  of  primitive  simplicity. 

In  Emile  ou  I' Education  (1762)  we  have  this  same  teaching 
still  further  developed  and  elaborated,  with  an  imaginary 
pupil  Emile  as  the  text  of  the  lesson.  The  whole  is  divided 
into  five  books,  the  contents  of  which  are  briefly  given  below. 

Emile  is  a  rich  orphan  whose  education  Rousseau  undertakes,  devoting 
himself  exclusively  to  the  training  of  his  body  and  mind.  The  funda- 
mental idea  of  the  book  is  that  man  is  naturally  good  when  leaving  the 
hands  of  his  Maker,  and  only  becomes  corrupted  through  the  evil  influ- 
ences of  civilization  and  society.  Accordingly,  all  that  has  to  be  done  is 
to  let  nature  work  its  own  salvation  in  freedom,  while  warding  off  the 
evils  of  an  artificial  society.  Hence  he  establishes  the  principle  of  a 
negative  education  as  "la  meilleure  ou  pluttit  la  scute  bonne",  not  as 
teaching  virtue,  but  as  warding  off  error. 

Book  I  speaks  of  the  plan  of  education  proposed,  the  early  life  of  the 
child  chosen  for  the  experiment,  attacks  many  traditional  practices,  such 
as  the  use  of  swaddling-clothes,  the  putting  out  of  children  to  nurse,  &c. 


208  EIGHTEENTH   CENTURY 

With  Book  II  the  child  can  already  talk  and  his  education  is  begin- 
ning. This,  however,  will  not  consist  in  the  furnishing  of  any  positive 
information,  but  in  the  preserving  from  error  and  from  the  danger  of 
evil  examples  and  counsels,  the  corruption  of  towns,  and  the  harmful 
intercourse  with  unreliable  servants,  fimile  is  brought  up  in  the 
country. 

Book  III  finds  1-Smile  at  the  age  of  twelve,  but  as  yet  unable  to  read 
books  which  " n'apprennent  qu'a  parler  de  ce  qu'on  ne  sait  pas".  He 
does  not  learn  by  heart,  he  draws  from  nature,  and  all  he  acquires  is  at 
first-hand.  Also,  though  rich,  he  learns  a  trade — that  of  a  carpenter — 
and  we  get  the  very  significant  words,  "  nous  approchons  de  l'6tat  de  crise 
et  du  siecle  des  revolutions  ".  Thus  up  to  the  present  all  his  lessons  have 
been  drawn  from  experience  and  from  the  necessary  relations  of  things, 
not  ideas.  He  does  not  know  the  meaning  of  such  abstract  things  as 
history  and  metaphysics. 

Book  IV  finds  him  in  his  fifteenth  year.  Up  to  the  present  he  has 
heard  nothing  of  God,  but  here  Rousseau  places  the  famous  Profession 
de  Foi  du  Vicaire  Savoyard.  One  summer  morning  the  vicaire  leads  the 
boy  to  the  top  of  a  hill  overlooking  the  valley  of  the  Po,  and  there  before 
this  magnificent  scene  reveals  to  him  the  all-powerful  will  which  created 
and  governs  the  world  he  sees  and  knows.  Yet  no  word  is  said  of 
.  revelation — the  religion  is  only  natural,  not  revealed.  As  fimile  ap- 
proaches manhood  his  guardian  at  length  leads  him  into  the  world  and 
finds  for  him  a  wife.  Only  after  his  marriage  does  he  relax  his  paternal 
cares. 

Book  V  is  devoted  to  the  education  of  women. 

Such  was  the  book  which  had  an  enormous  practical  influ- 
ence on  its  day  and  age,  and  an  influence  which  on  the  whole 
was  one  for  good.  It  performed  a  needful  function  in  in- 
teresting men  in  the  education  of  the  young;  it  made  it  once 
more  the  fashion  for  mothers  to  rear  and  nurse  their  children. 
It  is  in  fact  marvellous  how  very  much  that  is  good  and  sen- 
sible the  book  contains,  when  we  remember  that  the  whole 
system  on  which  it  is  built — the  assumption  of  a  human 
nature  which  is  naturally  perfect — is  entirely  false  and  un- 
warranted. 

We  have  followed  without  interruption  Rousseau's  expo- 
sition of  his  theories  on  man  and  society — their  development 
and  education.  Before  fimile,  however,  had  appeared  two 
works  of  first-rate  importance,  Julie  and  the  Contrat  Social. 

Julie  ou  la  Nouvelle  Htloise  (1760)  is  a  novel  in  the  form  of 


PROSE  209 

letters,  telling  of  the  love  of  Julie  and  Saint-Preux.  The 
whole,  form  and  plot,  shows  clearly  the  influence  of  Richard- 
son. Compelled  by  her  father  to  renounce  her  lover,  Julie 
marries  a  man  whom  she  esteems  without  loving.  The  novel 
is  of  the  highest  importance,  as  the  first  example  of  Rousseau's 
peculiar  sentimentality  and  descriptive  power.  The  word- 
painting  of  the  book  has  a  wonderful  charm,  and  warmth, 
vigour,  and  colour,  much  of  it  being  inspired  by  the  scenery 
of  the  Lake  of  Geneva  and  its  neighbourhood. 

Most  important  of  all  Rousseau's  works  in  its  after-effects 
was,  however,  the  Contrat  Social,  which  appeared  in  1762,  a 
few  months  before  Emile,  and  was  published  in  Amsterdam  to 
avoid  the  censorship  of  the  French  press.  Here  again  the 
fundamental  idea  is  that  of  the  original  natural  liberty  of  man, 
in  contrast  to  the  fetters  with  which  society  has  bound  him: 
"  L'homme  est  n6  libre  et  partout  il  est  dans  les  fers".  He  pro- 
ceeds from  the  premise  that  in  forming  the  first  political 
society  each  surrendered  his  own  individual  will  for  the  sake 
of  mutual  protection,  and  that  consequently  they  did  not 
renounce  their  primitive  liberty,  and  now  remain  as  free  as 
before.  Thus  sovereignty  rests  with  the  people,  which  has 
never  renounced  it.  Obviously  this  theory  demands  a  Repub- 
lic with  universal  franchise,  and  it  was  his  theory  of  such  a 
social  contract,  and  his  assertion  of  the  sovereignty  of  the 
people,  which  worked  on  men's  minds  and  bore  practical 
results  in  the  Revolution,  with  its  watchword  of  Equality, 
Liberty,  and  Fraternity. 

Yet  his  supposition  of  this  contract  in  which  the  primitive 
state  originated  is  pure  hypothesis,  and  many  of  his  arguments, 
brilliant  and  specious  as  they  are,  are  philosophically  untenable. 

Last  of  all  his  important  works  we  must  mention  the  Con- 
fessions, in  which  he  claims  to  have  painted  himself  without 
reserve,  and  which  certainly  speak  with  brutal  frankness  of 
very  much  that  was  low  and  shameful  in  his  life. 

He  seems  to  glory  in  the  tale  of  his  meannesses,  and  in  the 
recording  of  things  which  most  men  would  have  preferred  as 
far  as  possible  to  forget,  rather  than  to  rake  them  from  the 

(  M  643  )  O 


210  EIGHTEENTH   CENTURY 

ashes  of  the  past  and  expose  them  to  the  public  gaze.  But 
Rousseau  boasts  that  he  is  doing  what  was  never  done  before, 
showing  his  very  inmost  life  naked  and  entire  to  his  fellow- 
men,  and  claims  insolently  that,  bad  as  the  story  is,  he  would 
yet  dare  to  appear  before  his  Maker,  and  challenge  any  of  his 
fellows  to  unfold  a  better  tale.  We  can  only  in  charity  hope 
that  his  love  of  pose  has  betrayed  him  into  attributing  to 
himself  things  for  which  he  was  not  actually  responsible. 

Among  his  less  important  writings  were  some  articles  for 
the  Encydope'die;  an  opera,  the  Devin  du  Village,  containing 
some  airs,  such  as  "Rousseau's  Dream",  still  popular  to-day; 
and  lastly,  one  which  is  worthy  of  separate  mention.  The 
Lettre  b,  M.  D'Alembert  sur  les  Spectacles  (1758)  is  a  reply  to  a 
paper  of  D'Alembert  in  the  Encyclopedic,  advocating  the  estab- 
lishment of  a  theatre  at  Geneva;  and  Jean  Jacques  raises  a 
vigorous  protest  against  the  introduction  into  the  quiet  town 
of  Geneva  of  any  such  corrupting  influence  of  civilization. 

Taken  altogether,  the  influence  of  Rousseau  on  literature  in 
general  was  the  greatest  of  the  century.  His  solemn  note, 
almost  that  of  the  preacher,  was  at  the  opposite  pole  from 
the  flippant  cynicism  of  many  of  the  Encyclopedists,  and  his 
own  passionate  conviction  carried  persuasion  to  the  hearts 
of  the  readers.  He  had  something  of  the  wide  declamatory 
eloquence  of  the  17th  century,  which  we  see  also  in  the  vehement 
oratory  of  Danton  and  other  Revolutionists.  His  influence 
on  his  own  time,  and  indeed  not  his  own  time  alone,  was  two- 
fold— the  influence  on  literature  itself,  and  the  practical  influ- 
ence on  life  and  manners.  In  literature  he  virtually  introduced 
two  new  features — the  painting  of  nature  and  sentimentalism. 
Love  of  nature  was  throughout  his  life  his  great  passion,  and 
lay  at  the  root  of  all  his  characteristic  views  and  philosophy. 

In  his  peculiar  kind  of  sentimentality,  again,  Rousseau  was 
an  innovator.  Psychological  analysis  had  already  long  ago 
invaded  literature,  it  is  true,  but  Rousseau's  peculiar  intro- 
spection, his  brooding  sentimentality,  his  lyricism  and  subjec- 
tivity, were  quite  new.  It  was  the  first  appearance  in  literature 
of  that  subtle  evil  known  as  "le  mal  du  stick",  which  ran 


PROSE  211 

through  all  European  literature,  becoming  later  in  turn  Wer- 
therism  in  Germany  and  Byronism  in  England. 

Among  the  practical  results  of  Rousseau's  work  must  be 
reckoned  the  revival  of  the  family  feeling  in  France,  the  re- 
vival of  religious  feeling,  and  an  increased  taste  for  simplicity 
of,  life  and  country  pleasures.  And  lastly,  in  the  great  Revo- 
lution is  seen  the  immediate  and  practical  outcome  of  ideas 
which  largely  owed  their  birth  to  his  teaching,  conveyed  more 
or  less  indirectly  in  all  his  work,  and  directly  in  the  Contrat 
Social. 

Such  was  Rousseau,  a  writer  who  not  only  set  on  foot  a 
literary  movement  which  deeply  influenced  in  turn  the  liter- 
ature of  the  chief  cultured  peoples  of  Europe,  but  also  by  his 
practical  teaching  was  the  immediate  forerunner  of  the 
greatest  political  and  national  upheaval  the  world  has  ever  seen. 

We  now  come,  with  George  Louis  Leclerc,  Comte  de  Buffon, 
to  a  writer  of  a  different  type,  one  who  was  before  all  a 
scientist. 

Buffon  (1707-1788)  was  born  in  Burgundy,  son  of  a  counsellor  of  the 
Parliament  of  Bordeaux;  studied  at  the  Jesuit  College  of  Dijon,  travelled 
afterwards  with  a  young  Englishman,  Lord  Kingston,  in  Italy,  Switzer- 
land, and  England,  and  subsequently  settled  in  Paris  in  order  to  continue 
his  mathematical  and  scientific  studies.  He  became  a  member  of  the 
Academy  of  Sciences  in  1733,  and  in  1739  was  made  Intendant  of  the 
"Jardin  des  Plantes".  Then  it  was  that  he  conceived  the  plan  of  his 
great  work,  at  which  he  laboured  steadily  for  nearly  half  a  century, 
making  it,  although  he  went  into  the  world  and  was  by  no  means  a 
hermit,  his  one  serious  interest  in  life.  He  received  many  distinctions 
and  honours,  and  was  made  Comte  de  Buffon  by  Louis  XV,  while  his 
fame  spread  over  the  civilized  world. 

Buffon's  life-work  was  his  Histoire  Naturelle,  in  15  volumes, 
of  which  the  first  three  appeared  in  1749.  The  scheme  which 
he  proposed  to  himself  was  stupendous,  for  the  work  was  to  be 
an  encyclopedia  of  all  existing  scientific  knowledge  concerning 
the  earth  and  its  vegetable  and  animal  life.  The  whole  of  this 
colossal  undertaking  Buffon  himself  superintended,  although 
he  had  collaborators  who  did  much  of  the  hack-work,  while 
he  himself  wrote  the  more  striking  and  rhetorical  parts. 


212  EIGHTEENTH   CENTURY 

By  placing  man  at  the  centre  of  creation,  and  judging 
everything  from  his  point  of  view  and  the  way  it  affected 
him,  Buffon  gives  his  work  an  unnatural  and  unscientific 
position,  yet  by  the  very  breadth  of  scheme  he  widened 
the  scientific  horizon,  and  led  the  way  to  larger  and  more 
comprehensive  views.  At  present,  however,  we  are  not  so 
much  concerned  with  Buffon's  scientific  as  with  his  literary 
importance.  This  consists  in  his  having  won  a  new  field  for 
literature.  He  attached  himself  a  very  great  importance  to 
style,  as  is  expressed  in  his  so  well  known,  but  often  misquoted 
saying,  "  Le  style  est  Vhomme  meme".  He  wished  to  equal  the 
dignity  of  his  subject  by  the  grandeur  of  his  style,  and  even 
if  this  style  is  often  inflated  and  bombastic,  yet  it  has  great 
merits,  and  showed  for  the  first  time  the  possibility  of  treating 
scientific  subjects  in  clear  and  even  eloquent  language. 

Before  taking  leave  of  the  18th  century  we  must  say  a  few 
words  of  the  various  women  who  exercised  a  great  influence 
on  literature  during  the  period. 

In  an  age  when  the  human  interest  was  predominant,  and 
the  greatest  importance  was  attached  to  matters  of  form  and 
taste,  it  was  only  natural  that  ladies  of  refinement  and  cul- 
ture should  play  an  important  part  in  the  intellectual  life 
of  the  day.  Such  was  the  case;  and  we  find  many  women, 
not  so  much  by  their  own  writings  as  by  the  stimulating 
society  which  identified  itself  with  their  salons,  playing  a 
leading  rdle  in  the  world  of  letters. 

Madame  du  Deffand  (1697-1780)  may  be  taken  first  as  being  the  most 
important,  not  only  on  account  of  the  famous  men  she  gathered  in  her 
salon,  but  also  on  account  of  the  correspondence  she  maintained  with 
some  of  the  greatest  of  her  day,  such  as  Voltaire,  Montesquieu,  D'Alem- 
bert,  and  the  Englishman  Horace  Walpole.  By  her  wonderful  wit, 
shrewd  and  piercing  if  narrow  criticism  of  life  and  art,  she  won  and 
maintained  a  position  among  thinkers  and  writers,  for  whom  she  fur- 
nished during  many  years,  in  her  famous  mansion  of  the  Rue  Saint- 
Dominique,  a  common  meeting-ground. 

Madame  Geoffrin's  (1699-1777)  salon  formed  a  centre  for  the  philo- 
sophes  and  Encyclopedists,  among  its  frequenters  being  Diderot,  D'Alem- 
bert,  and  D'Holbach.  She  was  very  rich,  and  not  only  entertained  her 


PROSE  213 

proteges,  but  provided  many  of  them  with  the  very  means  of  subsist- 
ence. While  Madame  du  Deffand  was  a  grandc  dame,  Madame  Geoffrin 
belonged  to  the  bourgeoisie,  and  a  somewhat  analogous  difference  is  to 
be  traced  in  the  characters  of  their  entourage,  the  literary  and  aesthetic 
tone  of  the  former  being  in  marked  contrast  to  the  serious  and  business- 
like spirit  by  which  the  latter  was  on  the  whole  animated. 

Mademoiselle  de  Lespinasse  (1732-1776),  last  but  not  least  famous  of 
those  we  have  singled  out  for  special  remark,  began  as  the  friend  and 
adviser  of  Madame  du  Deffand,  and  ended  as  her  rival,  taking  away  with 
her,  after  their  quarrel  in  1764,  D'Alembert  and  not  a  few  of  the  Ency- 
clopedists. In  addition  to  the  importance  of  her  salon,  her  name  is 
remembered  for  the  collection  of  love  letters  addressed  to  the  Comte 
de  Guibert,  which  form  one  of  the  rare  expressions  of  genuine  passion 
of  the  time,  and  in  their  warmth  and  fervour  of  feeling  and  glowing 
passionate  language  are  not  unworthy  of  being  compared  with  the  work 
of  Rousseau  himself. 

Last  of  all  may  be  mentioned  the  birth  of  a  new  genre. 
which  was  the  direct  outcome  of  political  events — Political 
Eloquence. 

Up  till  now  the  pulpit  had  been  the  only  place  from  which 
a  direct  appeal  could  be  made,  and  it  had  produced  very  con- 
siderable oratorical  eloquence,  notably  in  the  17th  century, 
with  its  long  list  of  famous  preachers.  Now,  however,  a  direct 
appeal  had  to  be  made  to  the  people  on  other  grounds,  and 
the  political  tribune  gave  birth  to  a  remarkable  outburst  of 
oratorical  talent. 

The  list  of  famous  speakers  produced  by  the  great  national 
drama,  and  the  stirring  events  of  social  upheaval  and  transition, 
is  a  long  one,  and  we  can  speak  only  of  the  most  conspicuous. 

Gabriel  Honore  De  Biquetti,  Comte  de  Mirabeau  (1749- 
1791),  is  a  man  so  well  known  for  other  than  literary  reasons 
that  it  would  be  superfluous  to  give  details  of  his  life.  Suffice 
it  to  say,  that  during  the  vicissitudes  of  a  stormy  career  he 
had  learnt  much  not  only  from  men  but  also  from  books,  and 
the  latter  especially  during  the  periods  of  imprisonment  for 
which  he  had  to  thank  his  various  irregularities  of  conduct. 
All  his  reading  and  experience  served  to  develop  his  natural 
gift  of  eloquence.  In  the  numerous  speeches  which  he  de- 
livered before  the  Assemble  Constituante  he  displayed  a  won- 


214  EIGHTEENTH   CENTURY 

derful  power  of  improvisation,  a  fire  and  impetuosity  of  word 
and  imagery  exactly  suited  to  carry  away  the  audience  to 
which  they  were  addressed.  He  has  been  accused  of  over- 
emphasis, of  bombast  even,  of  want  of  polish  in  style,  and  of 
theatrical  and  commonplace  metaphors  and  imagery,  and  from 
such  faults  he  certainly  was  not  free.  Yet  at  the  same  time 
it  must  be  remembered  that  such  things  were  in  the  taste  of 
the  day,  and  that  in  oratory  at  any  rate,  where  the  object  is 
to  create  a  direct  and  immediate  impression,  the  means  must 
be  at  all  costs  adapted  to  the  ends.  Correctness  of  form  and 
literary  polish  would  have  been  poor  substitutes  for  that 
powerful  rush  and  impetus  which  carried  the  listeners  away, 
and  of  which  even  to-day  we  can  feel  the  power. 

Besides  his  speeches  we  possess  many  letters,  among  them 
the  Leitres  Originates  denies  du  Donjon  de  Vincennes,  and  the 
Lett  re  de  Mirabeau  a  un  de  ses  Amis  en  Allemagne. 

A  collection  of  his  CEuvres  Oratoires  was  published  in  1819. 

Another  famous  orator  of  the  Revolutionary  epoch  was  Robespierre 
(1758-1794),  who,  in  striking  contrast  to  Mirabeau,  delivered  his  most 
violent  tirades  in  a  phlegmatic  and  pedantic  style  that  had  more  of  the 
sermon  than  the  popular  oration — a  style  in  which  the  ever-present 
striving  after  edification  contrasts  terribly  with  the  undercurrent  of 
relentless  hatred  of  all  those  who  in  any  way  opposed  him. 

Lesser  lights  in  the  same  field  are  Danton,  Saint-Just,  and  Hebert, 
while  a  dozen  more  could  be  named,  each  of  whom  would  stand  out 
conspicuous  at  any  other  time,  and  who  collectively  illustrate  the  wonder- 
ful ferment  produced  in  men's  minds  by  the  terrible  events  of  the  days 
in  which  they  lived. 


BOOK  V 
THE   TRANSITION  (1789-1820) 


GENERAL  VIEW. 

The  period  of  the  Revolution  and  the  Empire  was  a  time 
of  transition  between  the  18th  and  19th  centuries,  belonging 
entirely  to  neither,  but  on  the  whole  more  akin  in  spirit  to 
the  latter  than  to  the  former.  It  marks  the  great  change 
which  came  over  literature  from  the  time  when  the  Encydoptdie 
still  voiced  the  prevailing  modes  of  thought  and  intellectual 
ideals,  to  the  full  outburst  of  the  new  genius  in  the  Romantic 
movement. 

The  distance  traversed  in  this  short  time  was  great,  and 
such  rapid  ripening  and  development  of  the  germs  of  change 
would  only  have  been  possible  in  a  time  when  the  foundations 
of  all  institutions,  and  of  society  itself,  were  shaken,  and  men's 
minds  correspondingly  loosened  from  the  bonds  of  old  tradi- 
tion and  prejudice,  and  open  for  the  reception  of  new  ideas. 

We  have  seen  that  the  philosophes  and  Encyclopedists  of  the 
18th  century,  while  questioning  all  merely  traditional  autho- 
rity in  religion  and  politics,  remained  on  the  whole  fairly 
conventional  in  matters  of  literature.  It  was  the  work  of  the 
writers  of  the  transition  period  of  which  we  now  speak  to 
point  out  new  ideals  more  in  keeping  with  the  times,  and  to 
pave  the  way  for  the  great  literary  revolution  which  was  to 
follow,  while  going  a  considerable  part  of  the  way  themselves. 

The  two  great  names  are  those  of  Madame  de  Stael  and 
Chateaubriand,  who,  while  working  along  different  lines,  had 
very  much  in  common,  and  both  in  their  different  ways  fur- 
thered the  same  tendency. 


216  THE  TRANSITION 

Madame  do  Stael,  by  directing  the  attention  of  her  country- 
men to  the  literatures  of  other  lands,  and  above  all  to  that 
of  Germany,  suggested  wider  ideals,  and  struck  the  first 
note  of  that  cosmopolitanism  which  was  one  of  the  proudest 
boasts  of  the  Romantic  school.  She  first  drew  attention 
to  the  Northern  literatures  as  being  especially  worthy  of 
consideration,  and  pointed  out  the  romanticism  which  is  their 
essential  characteristic.  It  is,  moreover,  noteworthy  that  she 
was  the  first  to  use  the  word  Komantic  in  its  literary  sense, 
as  the  opposite  of  Classic.  Romanticism  she  declared  to  be 
the  natural  and  only  really  living  spirit  of  the  time,  classicism 
having  no  longer  anything  but  a  transplanted  and  unnatural 
existence.  In  this  the  revolt  from  18th-century  classicism 
and  the  declaration  of  the  coming  movement  are  very  clearly 
and  directly  expressed. 

Chateaubriand's  work  in  the  transition  was  the  necessary 
complement  of  that  of  Madame  de  Stael;  for  as  she  defined 
the  characteristics  of  the  change  and  established  its  theory, 
so  he  furnished  it  with  ideals,  and  gave  inspiration  to  the 
youthful  reformers  who  were  to  carry  the  movement  to  its 
final  realization.  Like  her  he  attached  the  greatest  import- 
ance to  the  literature  of  other  countries,  while  his  own  writings 
range  over  the  widest  variety  of  subjects  and  scenes.  He  has 
been  called  the  "father  of  romanticism",  and  the  title  is 
applicable  both  in  the  general  and  in  the  particular,  for  he 
both  promoted  by  his  general  influence  the  tendency  of  the 
rising  literature,  and  furnished  the  sources  of  the  many  dif- 
ferent currents  which  that  tendency  later  developed. 


CHAPTER  I 

POETRY 

Whatever  may  be  the  intrinsic  merits  of  Jean  Pierre  de 
Beranger  as  a  poet,  he  deserves  special  notice  as  the  champion 
of  the  popular  and  middle-class  sentiment  of  his  day.  He  was 


POETRY  217 

born  at  Paris  in  1780.  Despite  the  noble  particle,  he  belonged 
to  the  lower  middle  class,  a  fact  which  he  never  attempted  to 
conceal.  After  various  experiences  he  occupied,  during  the 
years  1807-1821,  the  unpretentious  office  of  commis  expedition- 
naire  at  the  university,  and  his  daily  bread  being  now  assured, 
he  devoted  himself  whole-heartedly  to  the  writing  of  his 
famous  songs.  The  first  collection  was  published  in  1815. 
The  second  volume,  which  appeared  in  1821,  contained  poli- 
tical allusions  for  which  he  was  punished  by  the  loss  of  his 
post,  a  fine,  and  three  months'  imprisonment;  while  the  fourth 
volume,  in  1825,  was  taken  still  more  seriously  by  the  author- 
ities. These  punishments  naturally  only  increased  his  credit 
with  the  people,  and  his  popularity  became  truly  immense; 
but  though  he  received  repeated  offers  of  advancement  during 
the  remainder  of  his  life,  he  chose  to  remain  a  private  citizen. 
His  last  years  were  spent  in  retirement,  and  he  died  at  Paris 
in  1857. 

With  the  exception  of  Ma  Biographic,  published  posthum- 
ously, Beranger's  work  consists  exclusively  of  Chansons  (1815- 
1833).  Among  the  best  known  are:  Le  Eoi  d'Yvetot,  Eager 
Bontemps,  Ma  location,  Mon  Habit,  Le  Dieu  des  Bonnes  Gens, 
Waterloo,  Le  Vieux  Drapeau,  Les  Deux  Grenadiers. 

These  songs  range  over  a  wide  variety  of  subjects  and 
tones,  from  the  merely  gay  and  jovial,  through  the  amatory 
and  convivial  to  the  chanson  of  political  satire,  and  even  to  a 
kind  of  half-philosophical  ballad. 

In  all,  the  ideas  and  philosophy,  if  such  it  can  be  called,  are 
of  the  cheapest  and  most  clap-trap  order — the  philosophy  of 
the  popular  orator  or  the  tap-room  politician.  Even  such  as 
they  are,  his  ideas  have  no  stability  or  consistence,  his  politics 
being  an  incongruous  mixture  of  imperialism  and  republican- 
ism, his  religious  belief  (if  the  expression  may  be  pardoned) 
for  the  most  part  a  curious  mixture  of  paganism  and  Chris- 
tianity. 

Yet  though  not  an  ideal  teacher,  Be*ranger  had  all  the  quali- 
ties that  go  to  make  a  popular  poet — a  ready  wit,  a  lively 
fancy,  force  and  directness  of  expression,  and  a  happy  knack 


218  THE  TRANSITION 

of  verse  and  rime  which,  while  being  in  fact  the  work  of  very 
great  art  and  no  little  labour,  had  an  air  of  perfect  naturalness 
and  spontaneity.  Moreover,  he  expressed  directly,  if  not  the 
people  itself,  the  great  bourgeois  majority  of  France,  with  its 
love  for  the  petite  pointe  even  at  the  expense  of  the  idea,  its 
essentially  commonplace  thought,  its  malicious  fun,  and  lack 
of  all  real  reverence — a  characteristic  feature  of  the  esprti, 
gaulois. 

In  a  way  he  deserved  his  popularity,  and  in  his  day  he  was 
more  popular  even  than  the  great  leader  of  the  Eomantic 
school  himself,  for  he  was  an  artist  in  his  kind.  No  one 
has .  ever  understood  better  than  he  how  to  get  the  full  value 
out  of  the  refrain,  no  one  better  the  secret  of  giving  to  each 
stanza  its  own  individuality  within  the  whole,  no  one  better 
how  to  write  the  chanson  of  dramatic  action. 


CHAPTER  II 

DRAMA 

The  only  dramatist  of  any  importance  in  this  period  is 
Casimir  Delavigne  (1793-1843),  who  enjoyed  considerable 
reputation  in  his  day,  but  who  has  not  been  kindly  treated 
by  time,  his  work  appearing  to  us  to-day  unnatural  and  of 
little  merit.  As  a  poet  he  made  himself  famous  with  his 
Messdniennes,  published  in  1818,  verse  satires  upon  the  Restora- 
tion, in  which  he  celebrates  liberty,  and  bewails  the  degrada- 
tion and  misfortunes  of  France.  The  best  of  his  many  plays 
are  the  Fepres  Siciliennes  (1819),  Marino  Faliero  (1829),  Louis 
XI,  produced  in  1832,  and  Les  Enfants  d'Edouard  (1833). 

Delavigne  was  a  writer  of  little  originality,  but  of  consider- 
able technical  skill,  who  wavered  between  classicism  and 
romanticism,  and  possessed  none  of  the  best  qualities  of  either. 
He  was  incapable  of  appreciating  the  sobriety  and  simplicity 
of  the  former,  while  for  the  warmth  and  colour  of  the  latter 
he  substituted  commonplace  rhetorical  devices  and  exaggerated 
declamation. 


PROSE  219 

CHAPTER  III 
PROSE 

First  in  tie  list  of  great  names  of  the  period  stands  that  of 
a  famous  woman-writer,  Madame  de  Stael. 

Anne  Louise  Germaine  Necker  (Madame  de  Stael)  was  born  at  Paris 
in  1766,  the  only  child  of  a  rich  banker.  She  early  gave  proof  of  won- 
derful gifts,  and  at  the  age  of  eleven  made  the  acquaintance  in  her 
mother's  salon  of  some  of  the  most  distinguished  men  of  the  day.  She 
showed  marvellous  precocity,  while  still  a  mere  child  reading  many 
English  and  French  works,  but  devoting  herself  above  all  to  Rousseau, 
with  a  critical  work  upon  whom  she  made  her  literary  debut. 

At  the  age  of  twenty  she  married  the  Baron  de  Stael  Holstein,  the 
Swedish  ambassador  at  Versailles,  but  the  marriage,  which  lasted  sixteen 
years,  was  not  a  happy  one.  She  sympathized  with  the  Revolution  in 
its  beginnings,  but  after  the  massacres  of  1792,  fled  to  her  father's  castle 
at  Coppet,  on  the  banks  of  the  Lake  of  Geneva.  Under  the  Directory 
she  returned,  but  became  suspected,  and  in  1803  received  the  order  to 
leave  Paris.  She  set  off  for  Germany,  and  arrived  at  Weimar,  where 
she  charmed  and  was  charmed  by  the  brilliant  literary  society  there, 
only  leaving  Weimar  for  Coppet  to  attend  the  deathbed  of  her  father. 
In  1807  she  paid  a  second  visit  to  Germany,  and  it  was  after  this  that 
she  wrote  the  greatest  of  her  books,  De  I'Allemagne,  published  in  1813 
by  John  Murray  in  England,  where  she  was  temporarily  seeking.a  refuge. 
After  the  fall  of  Napoleon  in  1814  she  returned  to  Paris,  and  received 
a  hearty  welcome.  The  return  of  Napoleon  again  drove  her  from  Paris, 
but  she  once  more  returned,  and  died  there  in  1817. 

Her  principal  works  are:  De  la  Literature  considdrde  dans  ses 
Rapports  avec  les  Constitutions  Sociales  (1800),  Delphine  (1802), 
Corinne  (1807),  De  I'Allemagne  (1810),  and  the  unfinished 
Considerations  sur  la  Revolution  Fran$aise  (1818). 

In  the  Literature  she  lays  down  principles  of  literary 
criticism  in  its  relation  to  the  laws  and  institutions  of  society. 
Literature,  being  intimately  bound  up  with  society,  must 
change  with  it,  and  hence  the  great  masterpieces  of  the  past, 
however  much  we  may  admire  them — and  she  expresses  the 
warmest  admiration  for  Racine  and  Corneille — are  no  longer 
suitable  or  possible  models  for  the  writers  of  to-day.  Among 
the  first,  too,  she  points  to  the  Northern  and  Germanic  peoples 


220  THE   TRANSITION 

as  a  source  of  inspiration  for  the  present  day — a  message  taken 
up  and  developed  later  in  her  greater  work,  De  VAllemagne. 

Her  two  novels,  Delphine  »(1802)  and  C&rinne  (1807),  both 
present  the  author  herself  in  different  guises  and  situations, 
and  both  show  the  liberty  of  the  individual  in  conflict  with 
the  fetters  and  restraints  of  society. 

Delphine  loves  Le"once,  who,  though  he  returns  her  love, 
yet,  under  the  pressure  of  convention  and  the  persuasion  of 
his  family,  marries  Mathilde,  to  whom  he  is  betrothed,  but 
for  whom  he  has  no  love.  The  novel  develops  the  various 
miseries  which  are  the  consequences  of  this  loveless  marriage, 
and  of  the  true  and  genuine  passion  thwarted  by  the  conven- 
tionalities of  civilization. 

The  subject  of  Corinne  is  very  much  of  the  same  nature, 
and  treats  of  the  barrier  raised  by  false  convention  between 
the  gifted  and  great-souled  Corinne  and  the  young  Scottish 
noble,  Lord  Nelvil,  whom  she  loves  and  who  loves  her  in 
return,  but  who  from  prudence  and  worldly  motives  contracts 
a  marriage  of  convenience  with  another  woman.  Fame  is 
powerless  to  console  the  brilliant  Corinne  for  her  loss,  and  she 
dies  of  a  broken  heart. 

The  great  and  lasting  work,  however,  on  which  her  repu- 
tation depends  is  De  VAllemagne  (1810).  It  consists  of  four 
parts,  namely: — De  VAllemagne  et  des  mceurs  des  Allemands,  De 
la  litUrature  et  des  arts,  La  philosophic  et  la  morale,  La  religion 
el  I'enthousiasme. 

The  first  part  bears  in  a  more  direct  and  concrete  way  on 
the  nature  of  the  country  and  the  manners  and  habits  of  its 
people,  showing  the  relation  between  the  national  character 
and  literature,  while  in  the  second  this  direct  consideration 
of  the  literature  is  carried  still  further.  The  third  and  fourth 
books  treat  of  more  abstract  matters,  pointing  out  the  general 
principles  and  the  great  currents  of  German  literature  and 
thought,  and  establishing  the  essential  characteristics  of  the 
Romanticism  which  it  represents.  Here,  for  the  first  time,  the 
word  Romantic  was  employed  in  a  literary  sense  in  opposition 
to  Classic,  and  in  the  famous  passage  in  which  she  expresses 


PROSE  221 

this  we  see  formulated  for  the  first  time  also  the  ideas  which 
were  eventually  to  result  in  the  great  Romantic  movement 
in  France.  She  says:  "La  literature  romantique  est  la  seule 
qui  puisse  croitre  et  se  vivifier  de  nouveau:  elle  exprime  notre 
religion,  elle  rappelle  notre  histoire:  son  origine  est'andenne  mais 
non  antique.  Les  poesies  d'apres  ^antique  sont  rarement  populaires, 
parcequ'elles  ne  tiennent  dans  le  temps  actuel  a  rien  de  national . . . 
La  literature  des  anciens  chez  les  modernes  est  une  liiUrature  trans- 
plant^, la  litUrature  romantique  ou  chevaleresque  est  chez  nous 
indigene,  et  c'est  notre  religion  et  nos  institutions  qui  I'ont  fait 
folore." 

In  thus  substituting  a  new  ideal  for  the  old  classical  one 
Madame  de  Stae'l  breaks  away  completely  from  the  18th 
century,  and  prepares  the  way  for  that  wider  cosmopolitan 
idea  of  literature  which  was  the  ideal  of  the  Romantic  school, 
and  in  the  birth  and  first  beginnings  of  which  lies  the  import- 
ance of  the  writers  of  the  transition  period.  By  thus  widening 
the  literary  horizon,  and  creating  the  feeling  of  a  larger 
intellectual  fellowship,  Madame  de  Stae'l  rendered  incalculable 
service  to  the  literature  of  her  country. 

The  Considerations  sur  la  Revolution  (1818),  which  was  left 
unfinished  at  her  death,  is  more  directly  concerned  with  the 
political  than  with  the  literary  side  of  her  activity.  Though 
with  the  best  and  most  humane  of  intentions,  Madame  de 
Stae'l  is  so  hampered  by  class  prejudice,  and  a  kind  of  legis- 
lative liberalism,  which  sees  in  the  application  of  a  suitable 
constitution  the  only  thing  needful  for  the  curing  of  all  social 
ills,  that  she  fails  to  appreciate  duly  the  Revolution  with  its 
deep  underlying  currents  and  workings.  Yet  the  book  has 
many  merits,  and  is  still  to-day  of  value  for  students  of  that 
eventful  period. 

It  may  safely  be  said  that  Madame  de  Stae'l  is  one  of  the 
most  important  women -writers  the  world  has  ever  seen. 
Gifted  as  she  was  with  an  unbounded  and  many-sided  en- 
thusiasm, it  was  her  mission  to  convince  others  of  the  things 
which  she  herself  apprehended  with  such  clearness  and  con- 
viction. Endowed  with  a  wonderful  personality  and  great 


222  THE  TRANSITION 

conversational  powers,  she  exercised  no  less  influence  through 
the  many  men  of  distinction  with  whom  she  came  in  personal 
contact  than  by  her  writings.  In  opening  up  the  wonderful 
wealth  of  German  literature  and  thought,  she  conferred  a 
great  and  lasting  benefit  on  her  country. 

The  new  ideas  and  the  theory  of  art  defined  by  Mme  de 
Stael  were  realized  by  Francois  Rene  de  Chateaubriand. 


Chateaubriand  was  born  in  1768  at  St.  Malo  in  Brittany^  as  the  tenth 

ild  of  one  of  the  most  ancient  families  of  the  country.  He  was  allowed 
grow  up,  without  much  supervision  or  education,  among  the  rude 
fisher-folk  of  his  native  place,  and  this  free  natural  life  had  not  a  little 
VT;o  do  with  the  character  of  his  future  work.  For  a  short  time  he  served 
as  an  ensign;  in  1791  he  went  to  America,  but  returned  to  France  on 
hearing  of  the  flight  of  Louis  XVI,  and  joined  the  6migr6s. 

After  being  wounded  at  the  siege  of  Thionville,  he  passed  over  to 
England,  where  in  1797  he  published  his  Essai  sur  les  Revolutions.  He 
returned  to  France  in  1800,  and  in  1801  published  Atala,  which  estab- 
lished once  for  all  his  literary  position.  In  1806  and  1807  he  travelled 
in  Greece,  Palestine,  and  Egypt. 

For  a  time  he  had  been  an  admirer  of  Napoleon,  and  Napoleon  would 
have  been  only  too  glad  of  his  help  in  his  endeavours  to  reinstate 
Christianity,  but  Chateaubriand  definitively  left  him  after  the  judicial 
murder  of  the  Due  d'Enghien.  With  the  Restoration  he  became 'a  warm 
supporter  of  the  monarchy,  and  was  raised  to  high  honour.  Into  the 
many  vicissitudes  of  his  later  political  career  it  is  impossible  to  enter. 
That  his  rapid  and  rather  puzzling  changes  were  due  to  change  of 
conviction  rather  than  to  mere  time-serving  is,  however,  probable.  He 
said  of  himself  that  he  was  "  Bourbonien  par  honneur,  royaliste  par 
raison  et  par  conviction,  rtfpublicain  par  gofit  et  par  caractere".  He 
died  in  1848,  and  was  buried  at  his  jjreton  birthplace  of  St.  Malo. 

His  principal  works  are: — The  Essai  sur  les  Revolutions 
(1797),  Atala  (1801),  Le  Gtnie  du  Christianisme  (1802),  Hen/ 
(1805),  Les  Martyrs  (1809),  Itindraire  de  Paris  a  Jerusalem 
(1811),  Les  Natchez  (1826),  and  the  Memoires  d 'Outre- Tonibe, 
which  appeared  partly  before  and  partly  after  his  death. 

Chateaubriand's  first  literary  venture,  the  Essai  sur  les  Revo- 
lutions, published  in  England  in  1797,  is  curious  from  the  fact 
that  the  ideas  it  contains  are  the  exact  opposite  of  his  later 
creed.  The  work  is  impregnated  with  pessimism  and  scep- 
ticism— a  fact  which  is  not  so  much  to  be  wondered  at  when 


PROSE  223 

one  reflects  that  the  book  was  written  when  the  author  was 
a  fugitive  in  London,  poor,  ill,  disappointed,  and  well-nigh 
desperate.  However,  hardly  was  the  work  published  when 
he  turned  round,  principally  owing  to  letters  from  a  dead 
mother  and  sister:  "Les  deux  wix  sorties  du  tombeau  m'ont  frappd: 
je  suis  devenu  chrdtien,  fai  pleurd  et  fai  cru  ".  This  sentiment 
of  religion,  rather  a  sweet  dream  than  a  belief  founded  upon 
or  requiring  proofs,  was  for  the  rest  of  his  life,  with  the 
royalism  with  which  it  was  so  closely  connected,  his  faith  and 
profession. 

Moreover,  hardly  had  he  published  his  Essai  than  he  set 
about  its  refutation  in  the  Genie  du  Christianisme.  From  this 
he  detached  and  published  in  1801  A  tola,  a  kind  of  prose 
poem,  an  episode  from  the  mass  of  his  American  impressions 
and  reminiscences,  which  had  a  great  and  immediate  success, 
and  established  his  literary  reputation.  He  himself  describes 
it  as  "une  sorte  de  poeme  moitid  descriptif,  moitid  dramatique. 
fai  essay e"  de  donner  a  cet  ouvrage  les  formes  les  plus  antiques" 
The  story  tells  how  a  young  Indian,  Chactas,  who  had  fallen 
into  the  hands  of  a  hostile  tribe,  is  saved  by  an  Indian  girl, 
Atala.  Each  conceives  for  the  other  a  passionate  love,  and 
Atala,  feeling  herself  incapable  of  accomplishing  the  vow  she 
made  to  her  dying  mother  to  devote  herself  to  the  service 
of  the  Virgin,  poisons  herself.  The  scenes  which  describe  the 
wanderings  of  the  pair  through  the  forests,  and  their  adven- 
tures and  dangers,  show  very  great  narrative  skill  and  descrip- 
tive beauty. 

The  Gdnie  du  Christianisme  ou  Beautds  de  la  Religion  Chrdtienne 
(1802)  was  intended  before  all  to  prove — to  quote  once  more 
the  author's  own  words — that  "de  toutes  les  religions  gui  ont 
jamais  existd,  la  religion  chrdtienne  est  la  plus  podtique,  la  plus 
humaine,  la  plus  favorable  a  la  libertd,  aux  arts  et  aux  lettres; 
que  le  monde  moderne  lui  doit  tout,  depuis  I  agriculture  jusqu'aux 
sciences  abstraites,  depuis  les  hospices  pour  les  malheureux  jusqu'aux 
temples  bdtis  par  Micliel-Ange  et  ddcords  par  Raphael  .  .  .  qu'elle 
favorise  le  gdnie,  offre  des  formes  nobles  a  Vdcrivain,  et  des  moules 
parfaits  a  V artiste  .  .  .".  Such  is  the  vast  design  which  the 


224  THE  TRANSITION 

author  proposes  to  himself,  and  we  shall  see  how  he  carries 
it  out.  The  work  is  divided  into  four  parts:  Des  Doymes  et  de 
la  Doctrine,  Poetique  du  Christianisme,  Beaux  Arts  et  Literature, 
Culte. 

The  first  part  reviews  the  dogmas  of  a  number  of  religions. 
In  the  second  and  third  parts  he  compares  Christianity  with 
other  religions  from  the  artistic  and  poetic  point  of  view, 
showing  how  sentiments  and  emotions  have  been  raised  by  it 
to  a  higher  plane;  poetry,  science,  and  art  ennobled — how 
superior  the  Bible  is  to  Homer,  the  characters  of  the  biblical 
patriarchs  to  those  of  the  pagan  heroes. 

In  the  last  part,  Culte,  he  points  out  the  beautiful  and  poetic 
character  of  the  ceremonies  of  the  Christian  religion — its 
prayers,  masses,  processions,  and  the  beauty  of  many  of  the 
buildings,  churches  and  tombs,  which  are  directly  due  to  its 
influence. 

What  then  was  the  value  of  this  Christianity  of  Chateau- 
briand? Plainly  he  puts  his  main  defence  on  no  very  high 
religious  grounds,  laying,  as  he  does,  more  stress  on  its  value 
as  a  poetic  instrument  than  as  a  religion  in  the  true  sense. 
Sentiment  plays  too  great,  and  reasoned  argument  too  small 
a  part.  A  contemporary  well  describes  it  in  the  words:  "Le 
Genie  du  Christianisme  est  un  mattre  livre,  mais  par  le  sentiment 
qui  y  est  fort,  non  par  les  raisons  qui  y  sont  faibles  ".  The  defence 
is,  that  such  an  apology,  which  may  be  too  sentimental  and 
too  little  reasoned  for  our  critical  days,  was  the  best  and  only 
suitable  one  under  the  circumstances  in  which  it  was  written. 

But  whatever  its  value  in  other  respects  may  be,  the  Genie 
du  Christianisme  will  always  mark  an  important  date  in  the 
history  of  letters. 

Rent,  was  first  published  with  the  Gtnie  du  Christianisme 
in  1802,  but  afterwards  appeared  separately  in  1805.  It  is 
the  portrait  not  of  a  character  but  of  a  temperament,  of  the 
vague  melancholy  known  as  "le  mal  du  siecle",  which  had 
been  already  portrayed  by  Goethe  in  Werther,  by  Byron,  and 
by  Rousseau.  As  well  as  being  a  manifestation  of  a  mode  of 
thought  of  the  period,  Rent,  is  a  history  of  Chateaubriand's 


PROSE  225 

own  inner  life,  of  the  indefinite  fears  and  aspirations,  and 
unmotived  melancholy  of  the  man  who  said  that  he  had 
"  bailU  sa  vie  ", 

The  story  of  Rene  and  his  sister  Amelie  is  in  the  essential 
the  story  of  Chateaubriand's  own  youth,  when  he  roamed  the 
forests  of  his  native  country  with  his  sister  Lucile.  Rene 
never  knew  his  mother,  and  early  loses  his  father.  The  only 
human  being  with  whom  he  is  happy  is  his  sister.  She  saves 
him  from  many  dangers,  and  even  from  suicide;  but  when  she 
at  length  retires  into  a  convent  he  seeks  to  forget  his  grief  in 
the  forests  of  the  New  World,  where  he  joins  a  tribe  of  Indians, 
the  Natchez.  An  old  man,  Chactas,  becomes  a  father  and  con- 
fessor to  him,  and  relates  the  story  of  his  life,  including  the 
part  we  have  already  known  in  Atala. 

In  the  Natchez  Chateaubriand  later  recounts  the  death  of 
Rene. 

Les  Natchez,  which  did  not  appear  till  1826,  but  of  which 
we  will  speak  in  this  connection,  is  divided  into  two  parts,  of 
which  the  first  is  a  prose  epic  in  twelve  cantos,  the  second  a 
prose  novel. 

The  historical  background  is  the  destruction  of  a  French 
colony  in  Louisiana  by  Indians  in  1727,  and  the  punishment 
of  the  Indians  by  the  French.  In  the  first  part  he  introduces 
all  kinds  of  personages  of  heaven  and  hell,  the  guardian  angel 
of  America,  Satan,  and  even  allegorical  figures,  Renown,  &c. 
The  work  is  full  of  weird  and  grotesque  traits  and  unnatural 
imagery,  and  on  the  whole  is  somewhat  of  a  failure,  being  only 
redeemed  by  an  air  of  savage  beauty  and  simplicity,  and  by 
the  wonderful  truth  and  picturesqueness  of  many  of  its  descrip- 
tive parts. 

Les  Martyrs  (1809)  is  important  as  being  an  attempt  on  the 
author's  part  to  carry  into  execution  the  literary  principles 
which  he  had  laid  down  in  the  G4nie.  Les  Martyrs  ou  Triomplie 
de  la  Religion  Chrttienne  is  a  large  prose  epic  in  twenty-four 
cantos. 

The  subject  is  the  persecution  of  the  Christians  in  the  time 
of  Diocletian,  in  the  beginning  of  the  4th  century  A.D.  Eudore, 

(M643)  P 


226  THE  TRANSITION 

a  noble  Greek,  loves  Cymodocee,  the  daughter  of  a  priest  of 
Homer,  and  she  is  converted  in  order  to  marry  him.  Eudore, 
who  after  his  return  to  Rome  has  made  himself  conspicuous 
by  his  Christian  zeal,  is  condemned  to  die  in  the  arena,  where 
at  the  last  moment  Cymodocee  joins  him,  and  they  die  to- 
gether. A  cross  of  light  and  thunder  announce  that  the 
persecutions  are  at  an  end. 

The  work,  which  was  written  with  the  purpose  of  demon- 
strating a  theory — a  fact  which  we  are  in  no  danger  of  forget- 
ting— contains,  along  with  the  beauties  of  style  and  of  natural 
description  which  are  always  to  be  associated  with  the  author's 
name,  much  that  is  merely  formal  and  insipid,  much  that  is 
exaggerated  and  unnatural.  The  influence  of  Milton  is 
strongly  marked — we  are  given  views  of  heaven  and  hell,  of 
God  and  Satan,  angels  and  demons.  On  the  whole  it  is  a 
failure  as  an  epic;  there  is  too  much  that  is  merely  conventional, 
and  more  that  is  not  true  to  the  epic  spirit,  faults  which 
cannot  be  fully  atoned  for  by  the  beauties  of  description  and 
the  excellence  of  individual  parts. 

L'ltinSraire  de  Paris  h  Jerusalem  (1811)  gives  the  story  of 
Chateaubriand's  journey  to  the  Holy  Land  by  way  of  Greece, 
and  the  return  through  Egypt,  Barbary,  and  Spain,  undertaken 
after  he  had  broken  with  Napoleon  in  disgust  at  the  murder 
of  the  Due  d'Enghien.  In  this  we  see  the  author  at  his  best, 
.the  varied  and  interesting  countries  which  he  visited,  the  old- 
world  customs  of  the  peoples,  the  legends  and  historical  asso- 
ciations of  the  different  places  seen,  having  inspired  him  with 
some  of  his  most  eloquent  writing  and  most  beautiful  natural 
description. 

Lastly,  we  must  speak  of  the  Mdmoires  d'Outre-Tombe,  which 
were  not  to  appear  till  after'  his  death,  but  of  which  he  was 
compelled  by  pecuniary  difficulties  to  sell  the  property  during 
his  lifetime,  or,  as  he  put  it,  to  "  hypothdquer  sa  tombe  ",  in  con- 
sequence of  which  a  part  actually  appeared  before  his  death. 
They  were  written  in  the  last  period  of  his  life,  during  which 
he  remained  aloof  from  politics  and  loyal  to  the  legitimate 
monarchy.  They  abound  in  eloquent  and  touching  passages, 


PROSE  227 

but  are  dominated  and  spoiled  by  his  excessive  self-appreciation 
and  sensitive,  almost  morbid,  pride. 

Chateaubriand  exercised  on  the  literature  of  the  beginning 
of  the  19th  century  an  influence  only  paralleled  by  that  of 
Madame  de  Stael.  He  has  been  justly  called  "  the  last  of  the 
classics  and  the  first  of  the  romanticists  ".  Like  Madame  de 
Stael  he  drew  the  attention  of  his  fellow-countrymen  to  foreign 
literatures,  and  so  anticipated  what  was,  if  not  the  practice, 
at  any  rate  the  profession  of  the  Romantic  school.  By  the 
importance  which  he  attached  to  the  ego,  by  his  sentimentalism 
and  self-questioning,  he  showed  the  path  which  modern  lyricism 
was  to  pursue. 

He  wrote  three  works  each  of  which  formed  a  school — a 
thing  which  could  be  said  of  few  writers,  and  which  of  itself 
shows  his  great  influence  and  power  even  apart  from  the 
question  of  the  value  of  those  works.  To  quote  the  words  of 
Theophile  Gautier:  "Dans  le  Genie  du  Christianisme,  il  re- 
staura  la  cathedrale  gothique ;  dans  les  Natchez,  il  roumii  lagrande 
nature  ferme'e;  dans  Rene",  il  inventa  la  mdlancolie  et  la  passion 
moderne". 

It  is  not  as  a  thinker  that  he  is  of  such  importance  for  the 
student  of  French  literature,  as  he  deals  too  much  in  sentiment, 
and  that  not  infrequently  false,  and  abounds  in  absurdities 
and  exaggerations,  to  which  he  was  led  by  his  fervid  imagi- 
nation. Where  his  characteristic  genius  is  to  be  seen  is  in 
the  glowing  diction  of  his  descriptive  writings,  in  which  he 
surpassed  even  his  masters,  Rousseau  and  Bernardin  de  St. 
Pierre,  in  the  majestic  language  in  which  he  speaks  of  some 
of  the  great  and  noble  enthusiasms  of  life,  and  which  acted 
like  a  trumpet  call  and  an  inspiration  to  the  young  and 
impressionable  leaders  of  the  Romantic  school.  On  them 
Chateaubriand's  influence  can  be  traced,  not  in  one  style  or  in 
one  direction  alone,  but  in  the  most  comprehensive  fashion. 

The  influence  of  Rousseau  and  of  Chateaubriand  combined  in  the 
writings  of  Etieune  de  Senancour  (1770-1846),  whose  fame  rests 
securely  on  Obermann  (1804),  a  romance  in  epistolary  form,  in  which 
the  hero  expresses  so  effectively  the  desolating  maladie  du  sieclc,  that 


228  THE  TRANSITION 

disgust  of  life  before  having  lived,  of  which  Rousseau  may  be  called  the 
creator. 

A  writer  who  made  up  in  quality  for  lack  of  quantity  is 
Joseph  Joubert  (1754-1824),  who  had  a  most  peculiar  literary 
career,  if  the  term  may  be  used  of  one  whose  literary  labours 
were  not  known  till  after  his  death.  He  was  born  in  Perigord, 
but  at  the  age  of  twenty -two  came  to  Paris,  and  went  through 
all  the  terrors  of  the  Revolution.  At  Paris  he  spent  most 
of  the  remainder  of  his  life,  in  correspondence  and  personal 
intercourse  with  many  men  of  letters,  and  well  known  for  his 
criticisms  of  the  writings  of  others,  though  he  put  forward 
nothing  of  his  own. 

It  was  not  till  1838,  fourteen  years  after  his  death,  that  his 
friend  Chateaubriand  issued  a  volume  of  Penstes,  collected 
from  the  papers  he  had  left  behind,  which  at  once  established 
his  reputation  as  one  of  the  greatest  penste  writers  of  the 
world,  and  worthy  to  rank  beside  even  Pascal  and  La  Roche- 
foucauld. They  are  remarkable  for  their  wide  range,  embracing 
theology,  politics,  social  questions,  and  ethics,  as  well  as  litera- 
ture; and  still  more  for  their  wonderful  condensation  of 
thought,  which  is  attained  without  obscurity  or  any  sacrifice 
of  style.  His  Pensdes  are  the  product  of  a  cultured  mind 
which  was  happily  capable  of  matching  the  refinement  and 
delicacy  of  its  thought  with  an  equal  refinement  and  delicacy 
of  expression. 

A  hatred  of  all  new  ideas,  and  of  the  institutions  called  forth 
by  the  Revolution,  is  the  key-note  of  the  works  of  Joseph  de 
Maistre  (1754-1821),  born  at  Chambe'ry,  a  son  of  the  President 
of  the  Senate  of  Savoy.  When  Savoy  became  French  in  1792 
he  withdrew  to  Lausanne,  and  there  wrote  his  first  work  of 
importance,  the  Considerations  sur  la  France.  From  1802  to 
1817  he  lived  at  St.  Petersburg  as  minister  of  the  King  of 
Sardinia.  In  1817  he  returned  to  Turin,  and  died  there  in 
1821. 

His  chief  writings  are  Considerations  sur  la  France  (1796), 
Du  Pape  (1819),  De  Vfiglise  Gallicane  (1821),  and  the  incom- 
pleted  Soirees  de  St.  Petersbourg,  in  the  same  year.  All  his 


PROSE  229 

writings  are  dominated  by  one  guiding  idea — the  most  absolute 
ultramontanism,  that  is  to  say,  the  theory  which  sees  in  the 
pope  the  only  final  arid  supreme  source  of  all  earthly  power, 
while  temporal  princes  only  hold  a  certain  degree  of  authority 
as  his  deputies.  In  this  logical  uniformity  he  sought  the 
remedy  for  all  the  disputes  and  complexities  of  civilized 
life,  and  for  what  the  idea  was  worth  he  supported  it  with 
exceptional  argumentative  powers.  Paradoxical  he  was  in  a 
great  degree,  and  few  will  agree  with  his  fundamental  principle, 
but  none  can  deny  him  very  remarkable  powers  of  close  and 
consistent  reasoning,  which  remind  one  of  the  best  traditions 
of  the  18th  century  in  this  its  finest  quality. 

The  same  doctrines,  though  in  a  different  way,  were  set  forth  by  the 
Vicomte  de  Bonald  (1754-1840),  to  whom  Joseph  de  Maistre  could 
write :  "  Je  n'ai  rien  pens6  que  vous  ne  I'ayez  6crit;  je  n'ai  rien  fcrit  que 
vous  ne  I'ayez  pense"  ". 

His  principal  writings,  composed  in  a  firm  and  vigorous  style,  are :  La 
Theorie  du  Pouvoir  Civil  et  Religieux  (1796),  and  La  Legislation  Primi- 
tive (1802),  in  which  his  views  are  summed  up. 

Another  polemical  writer  of  note  is  Benjamin  Constant  (1767-1830), 
who  led  the  liberals  in  politics  and  religion.  His  ideal  was  a  government 
strong  enough  to  protect  the  individual,  yet  sufficiently  limited  not  to  be 
able  to  oppress  him.  But  his  fame,  in  literature  at  all  events,  rests  on 
Adolphc  (1806),  the  only  great  psychological  novel  of  the  century  before 
Stendhal,  in  which  the  hero  is  none  other  than  Constant  himself,  and 
the  heroine,  Ell^nore,  is  easily  identified  as  his  friend  Mme  de  Stael. 

Joseph's  brother,  Xavier  de  Maistre  (1763-1852),  a  soldier  who  served 
in  his  youth  in  the  Piedmontese,  and  later  in  the  Russian  army,  wrote 
simple  tales  and  sketches  which  attained,  and  still  hold,  a  very  high 
reputation.  The  Voyage  autour  de  ma  Chambre  (1794),  most  charming  of 
all,  written  when  the  author,  then  a  young  officer,  was  confined  to  his 
room  during  six  weeks  for  some  trifling  offence,  tells  how  he  whiled  away 
the  monotony  by  making  the  tour  of  his  room,  looking  at  every  object 
with  new  eyes,  and  making  the  most  commonplace  and  familiar  things 
serve  as  the  theme  for  remarks  and  reflections  of  the  most  delicate  and 
charming  fancy.  His  other  best-known  novels  are  La  Jcune  Sibirienne 
and  Le  Le"preux  de  la  Cite  d'Aoste,  in  both  of  which  a  simple  and  touching 
story  is  told  in  a  delightfully  naive  way. 

For  brilliancy  and   scathing  irony  the  first  place  among 
French  pamphleteers  is  occupied  by  Paul  Louis  Courier  (1772- 


230  THE  TRANSITION 

1825),  born  in  Paris,  the  son  of  a  wealthy  bourgeois,  and 
educated  at  the  College  de  France  and  a  military  academy.  He 
was  a  passionate  student  of  Greek  literature,  to  which  he 
devoted  himself  both  at  school  and  at  the  academy  to  which 
he  afterwards  passed.  He  had  a  great  distaste  for  business, 
and  as  his  father  would  not  hear  of  letters  as  a  profession,  he 
entered  the  army  in  1792,  and  served  on  and  off  for  seventeen 
years.  After  the  battle  of  Wagram,  in  which  he  was  severely 
wounded,  he  finally  abandoned  the  service,  and  devoted  him- 
self entirely  to  literature,  which  had  been  all  through  his  life 
his  only  real  interest.  For  a  time  he  lived  in  Florence, 
where  the  accidental  blotting  of  a  page  in  a  manuscript  of 
Longus  led  to  the  Lettre  <i  M.  Renouard,  which  first  revealed 
his  literary  powers.  In  1814  he  settled  on  his  small  estate 
in  Touraine,  occupying  himself  with  its  management  and 
with  vine  culture,  and  there  lived,  with  frequent  visits  to 
Paris,  for  the  remainder  of  his  life.  In  1825  he  was  shot  by 
an  assassin,  probably  a  former  gamekeeper  whom  he  had 
turned  away. 

Courier's  best-known  writings  are : — The  Lettre  h  M.  Renouard, 
already  mentioned;  Petition  aux  deux  Chambres  (1816),  in  which 
he  describes  the  wrongs  and  grievances  of  the  peasants;  Lettre 
&  Messieurs  de  VAcademie  des  Inscriptions  et  Belles  Lettres,  the 
wittiest  and  most  brilliant  of  all  his  writings,  in  which  he 
castigates  that  learned  body  for  having  preferred  to  him  in 
their  last  election  a  man  whose  only  merit  was  noble  birth;  a 
series  of  Pamphlets  addressed  to  his  fellow  villagers,  and  signed 
"Paul  Louis  Vigneron",  among  which  the  most  famous  is  his 
Simple  Discours,  published  in  1821,  protesting  against  the  sub- 
scription raised  to  present  the  castle  of  Chambord  to  the  Due 
de  Bordeaux,  and  which  brought  him  a  couple  of  months' 
imprisonment.  His  private  letters  are  delightful. 

Thus  it  will  be  seen  that  all  his  writings  were  in  short 
pamphlet  form.  He  neither  wrote  nor  attempted  a  greater 
work  in  any  of  the  more  serious  forms  of  literary  composition. 
The  man  who  started  life  as  a  pure  beUelettrist,  as  a  passionate 
lover  of  Greek  literature,  was  turned  by  force  of  circumstances 


and  by  the  chicaneries  of  politics  into  a  journalist,  and  the 
most  considerable  of  his  time.  Beginning  with  a  strong  fund 
of  Voltairianism,  as  a  liberal  bourgeois  of  the  old  school,  he 
became  after  the  Eestoration  what  we  might  call  a  professional 
oppositionist. 

Brought  up  on  the  beauty  and  simplicity  of  his  beloved 
Greek,  and  steeped  in  the  great  writings  of  the  older  litera- 
ture of  his  own  land,  this  journalist  was,  however,  something 
more.  His  thought  is  narrow,  his  ideas  are  one-sided  and 
never  far-reaching,  but  in  finish  of  expression  and  striking 
power  he  has  rarely  been  surpassed.  He  excels  in  staging  his 
effects;  he  understands  perfectly  how  to  put  each  thought 
in  its  most  telling  form.  Add  to  this,  that  in  irony  he  has 
had  few  superiors  and  not  many  equals,  that  he  is  a  master 
of  the  sly  comic  spirit  which  delights  in  sudden  and  unex- 
pected turns,  and  that  over  all  is  shed  a  certain  subtle  sugges- 
tion of  archaism  which  is  not  without  its  charm,  and  we  shall 
understand  the  delight  Avith  which  he  was  read  by  his  contem- 
poraries and  may  still  be  read  to-day. 

One  of  the  most  original  writers  of  the  day  was  Felicite  de 
Lamennais,  a  poet  in  prose,  and  the  earliest  preacher  of  what 
has  since  been  called  "  Christian  socialism  ".  Born  at  St.  Malo 
in  1783,  after  an  irregular  education  he  became  first  of  all  a 
schoolmaster,  arid  later  a  priest.  In  1817  there  appeared  his 
Essai  sur  V Indifference,  which  at  once  made  him  a  marked  man. 
In  1830  along  with  two  others  he  started  a  paper,  L'dvenir,  to 
represent  liberal  Catholicism,  but  it  was  censured  by  Gregory 
XVI,  and  suspended  in  the  following  year.  Starting  as  an 
Ultramontane,  he  gradually  drifted  farther  and  farther  away, 
disgusted  to  find  material  interests  preponderating  even  in 
Rome  itself,  and  eventually  rejected  orthodoxy  completely. 
He  died,  without  being  reconciled  to  the  Church,  in  1854. 

Lamennais  is  even  more  important  for  the  history  of  religious 
thought  than  for  the  history  of  literature,  but  at  the  same 
time  his  two  most  important  works,  the  Essai  sur  T 'Indifference 
en  Matiere  de  Religion  (1817-1823)  and  the  Paroles  d'un  Croyant 
(1834),  are  of  great  literary  merit, 


232  THE  TRANSITION 

He  began  his  career  very  much  as  Joseph  De  Maistre  had 
done,  but  with  the  difference  that  while  De  Maistre  lays 
greater  stress  on  the  temporal  power  of  the  Papacy,  seeking 
social  and  political  uniformity  in  complete  submission  to  its 
authority,  Lamennais  seeks  from  the  same  unquestioned 
supremacy  religious  uniformity  and  peace.  This  is  the  subject 
of  the  Essai,  in  which  he  argues  the  necessity,  for  the  sake 
of  unity,  of  renouncing  private  opinion  and  judgment,  and 
regarding  the  one  will  as  infallible. 

Profoundly  disappointed  in  his  high  conception  of  papal 
aims  and  methods,  he  renounced  all  authority  in  his  embitter- 
ment,  and  in  the  Paroles  d'un  Croyant  proclaimed  in  impassioned 
and  eloquent  words,  and  in  a  wonderful  scriptural  diction, 
nearer  akin  to  poetry  than  prose,  a  kind  of  natural  religion 
outside  all  formulas  and  creeds. 

Lamennais  was  an  enthusiast,  and  for  that  very  reason  apt 
to  rush  to  extremes.  He  demanded  perfection  from  those 
who  were  for  the  time  being  the  object  of  his  passionate 
devotion,  and  when  the  inevitable  disappointment  followed, 
was  equally  impassioned  in  his  disgust  and  condemnation. 
He  made  the  mistake  of  judging  causes  by  their  representa- 
tives, of  confounding  persons  and  ideas.  Yet  most  of  his 
faults  were  connected  with  true  nobility  of  purpose,  and 
there  is  much  that  is  great  in  this  enthusiast,  this  dreamer  of 
dreams. 


BOOK  VI 
NINETEENTH   CENTURY 


GENERAL  VIEW 

The  19th  century  is  the  time  of  a  great  revival  in  French 
literature,  known  as  the  Romantic  Movement,  a  kind  of  second 
Renaissance,  in  which,  after  a  period  of  preparation,  there 
appeared  a  number  of  men  of  great  and  varied  genius, 
whose  united  labours  resulted  in  the  production  of  a  body  of 
literature  phenomenal  alike  in  qualit}',  quantity,  and  range. 
After  this  new  school  had  held  undisputed  sway  during  the 
first  part  of  the  century,  there  arose  in  the  latter  half  a  second 
movement,  the  school  of  Realism,  which  in  its  later  and 
exaggerated  phase  was  styled  Naturalism. 

And  thirdly,  Naturalism  in  its  turn  is  dying  or  dead,  and 
there  has  appeared  in  the  last  years  of  the  century  a  third 
tendency  in  literature,  which,  while  possessing  features  that 
distinguish  it  from  the  preceding  schools,  is  as  yet  somewhat 
vague  and  undecided  in  character. 

(a)  First  Period  (1820  C.-1850  c.). — Romanticism,  of  which 
the  first  germs  are  to  be  traced  back  to  the  18th  century,  and 
which  during  the  period  of  transition  had  been  slowly  gaining 
ground,  declared  itself  in  the  third  decade  of  the  nineteenth 
century,  and  by  1830  was  firmly  established. 

We  must  examine  what  was  the  nature  of  this  revolution 
and  what  is  understood  by  the  term  romantic  literature.  To 
give  a  short  comprehensive  definition  is  impossible,  for  it 
possesses  many  more  negative  than  positive  properties,  and 
was  by  no  means  understood  by  all  its  adherents  in  one  clearly 
defined  and  indisputable  sense.  We  shall  then  have  to  speak 


234  NINETEENTH   CENTURY 

of  its  general  properties  and  also  of  its  negations,  rather  than 
to  lay  down  a  hard  and  logical  definition. 

Romanticism  was,  as  has  been  already  said,  largely  nega- 
tive, consisting  in  the  rejection  of  the  classical  creed  and 
a  breaking  up  of  the  bonds  under  which  classical  literature 
laboured.  It  demanded  greater  freedom  in  all  branches,  a 
greater  recognition  of  the  personal  element,  more  play  for  the 
individual  imagination,  a  more  lyrical  spirit  in  general.  Its 
reforms  bore  on  all  branches  of  the  literary  art — subject,  lan- 
guage, and  form.  . 

In  subject  it  demanded  the  right  to  represent  not  only  the 
beautiful,  which  was  solely  admissible  under  the  strictly  classi- 
cal theory,  but  also  the  ugly  and  even  the  repulsive,  claiming 
by  the  contrast,  by  this  duality  in  art,  to  obtain  a  closer  re- 
presentation of  the  many-sidedness  of  actual  life. 

So  in  the  preface  to  Cromwell,  the  great  manifesto  of  the 
Romanticists,  which  appeared  in  1827,  Victor  Hugo  says: 
"  Tout  dans  la  creation  n'est  pas  humainement  beau,  le  laid  y  existe 
a  cM6  du  beau,  le  difforme  pres  du  gmcieux,  le  grotesque  au  revers 
du  sublime,  le  mal  avec  le  bien,  V ombre  avec  la  lumikre" ;  and  he 
goes  on  to  say. that  romantic  poetry  "se  mettra  a  faire  comme 
la  nature,  a  meler  dans  ses  creations  .  .  .  I'ombre  a  la  lumiere,  le 
grotesque  au  sublime". 

Not  only  did  they  claim  the  right  of  taking  up  any  subjects, 
but  they  also  chose  their  subjects  from  the  most  varied  sources, 
looking  upon  the  whole  universe  as  their  legitimate  field. 
They  took  by  preference  unfamiliar  places  and  people  for  their 
themes,  and  endeavoured  at  the  same  time  to  preserve  to  them 
their  own  peculiar  individuality.  On  local  colour  they  laid 
the  greatest  stress :  "  On  commence  a  comprendre  de  nos  jours  que 
la  localit^  exacte  est  un  des  premiers  eUments  de  la  rtalile.  .  .  .  Le 
lieu  oil  telle  catastrophe  s'est  passed  en  devient  un  Umoin  terrible  el 
inseparable  .  .  ."-1 

On  the  importance  of  foreign  literatures  stress  had  already 
been  laid  by  the  two  great  authors  of  the  Transition,  Madame 
de  Stael  and  Chateaubriand,  and  the  lesson  they  had  taught; 
1  Victor  Hugo,  Preface  to  Cromwell. 


GENERAL   VIEW  235 

was  taken  to  heart  by  the  Romanticists,  who  prided  them- 
selves on  their  acquaintance  not  only  with  the  great  names 
of  the  great  literatures,  not  only  with  Shakespeare,  Goethe, 
Schiller,  and  Byron,  but  also  with  less  famous  names  and  with 
the  literatures  of  obscurer  peoples.  In  keeping  with  this 
great  importance  attached  to  modern  foreign  literatures  at 
the  expense  of  the  classics  was  the  substitution  of  medieval 
and  Christian  art  for  pagan  mythology.  This  tendency  had 
received  a  great  impulse  from  the  numerous  translations  from 
foreign  authors,  and  from  the  collections  of  popular  songs  and 
studies  on  medieval  literature  and  manners,  which  had  ap- 
peared during  the  first  thirty  years  of  the  century.1 

In  language  the  reformation  aimed  at  was  also  considerable; 
in  place  of  the  classical  formality  and  simplicity  they  sought 
to  obtain  the  highest  possible  degree  of  colour  and  brilliancy, 
using  every  freedom  in  treatment,  daring  contrast  and  anti- 
thesis, and  startling  turns  of  expression.  Not  least  revolu- 
tionary was  their  vocabulary  itself;  the  classical  preciosity 
and  selectness  disappeared,  words  of  every  sort  and  description 
being  employed  with  the  most  supreme  and  joyous  indiffer- 
ence. Of  this  side  of  the  reform  Victor  Hugo  speaks  in  the 
R6ponse  h  un  Acte  d 'Accusation:* 

"  Les  mots,  bien  ou  mal  ne"s,  vivaient  parque"s  en  castes; 
Les  uns,  nobles,  hantant  Ics  Phedres,  les  Jocastcs, 
Les  Meropes,  ayant  le  decorum,  pour  lot, 
Et  montant  d  Versailles  aux  carrosses  du  roi; 
Les  autres,  tas  de  gueux,  droles  patibulaires, 
Habitant  les  patois;  quelques-uns  aux  galercs, 
Dans  I'arfjot;  devours  d  tous  les  yenres  basf 
Dechire's  en  haillons,  dans  les  holies;  san$  bas, 

1  The  following  is  a  list  in  chronological  order  of  the  most  important  of 
these  works: — (1809)  Schiller's  Wallcnstein,  translated  by  B.  Constant; 
(1816-21)  Raynouard,  Choix  de  Patsies  Originates  des  Troubadours; 
(1821)  translation  of  Shakespeare  by  Guizot;  (1822-25)  translation  of 
Byron  by  Pichot;  (1823)  translation  of  Manzoni's  tragedies  by  Fauriel; 
(1825)  Lceve^Veimars,  Ballades,  Lfyendes  et  Chants  Populaires  de  VAnylc- 
terre  et  de  VEcosse;  (1828)  Sainte-Beuve,  Tableau  de  la  Poteie  Fran^aise  au 
XVI?  siecle;  (1828)  translations  of  Faust  by  Nodier  and  Gerard  de  Nerval ; 
(1829)  La  Divine  Comedie  de  Dante  by  A.  Deschamps. 
Contemplations,  vol.  i.  7. 


236  NINETEENTH   CENTURY 

Sans  pcrruque;  crees  pour  la  prose  ou  la  farce; 
Populace  du  style,  au  fond  de  I' ombre  Sparse; 
Vilains,  rustres,  croquants,  que  Vaugelas  Icur  chef 
Dans  le  bagne  Lexique  avail  marquis  d'une  F; 


Alors,  brigand,  je  vins;  je  m'dcriai:  "Pourquoi 

Ceux-ci  toujours  devant,  ceux-la  toujours  derrUref" 

Et  sur  Vacademie,  a'ieule  et  douairiere, 

Cachant  sous  ses  jupons  les  tropes  effaris 

Et  sur  les  bataillons  d'alexandrins  Carre's, 

Jefis  souffler  un  vent  rfvolutionnaire, 

Je  mis  un  bonnet  rouge  au  vieux  dictionnaire." 

Though  the  change  in  this  respect  was  not  wholly  bene- 
ficial, and  although  this  liberty  was  rather  apt  to  be  carried  to 
excess  and  to  lead  to  a  motley  confusion  in  vocabulary,  yet  in 
so  far  as  it  drove  out  conventionality  and  meaningless  para- 
phrase by  the  use  of  the  mot  propre  it  conferred  a  priceless 
boon  on  the  language. 

This  use  of  the  mot  propre1  was  one  of  the  things  on  which 
the  Romanticists  prided  themselves,  and  V.  Hugo  boasts  of  it 
in  the  already -mentioned  poem: 

.         .        .         "  Le  mot  propre  ce  rustre 
N'ttait  que  caporal,  je  Vai  fait  colonel. 

Je  nommai  le  cochon  par  son  nom;  pourquoi  pas? 
On  entendit  un  roi  dire:  Quette  heure  est-tt?" 

To  form  they  devoted  no  less  attention.  In  Drama  the 
Unities  were  severely  examined,  those  of  Time  and  Place 
being  rejected  emphatically:  "Croiser  VuniU  de  temps  &  VunM 
de  lieu  comme  les'barreaux  d'une  cage,  et  y  faire  pedantesquement 

1  In  order  to  avoid  the  hated  mot  propre,  writers,  and  more  especially  the 
pseudo-classicists  of  the  18th  century,  had  resorted  to  the  most  absurd  cir- 
cumlocutions:  Belloy  in  the  tragedy  Le  Siege  de  Calais  (1765),  wishing  to 
inform  the  audience  that  the  besieged  had  been  reduced  to  eating  rats  and 
dogs,  expresses  himself  as  follows : — 

"  Le  plus  vil  aliment,  rebut  de  la  misere, 
Mais,  aux  derniers  abois,  ressource  horrible  et  cMre, 
De  la  fidelitt  respectable  souticn, 
Manque  a  I'or  prodigue  du  riche  citoyen  ". 


GENERAL  VIEW  237 

entrer,  de  par  Aristote,  tons  ces  fails,  tons  ces  peuples,  toutes  ces 
figures  que  la  providence  dtroule  a  si  grandes  masses  dans  la 
r6alM!  c'est  mutiler  hommes  et  choses,  c'est  faire  grimacer  I'his- 
toire/"1  The  third,  the  unity  of  Action,  is  as  important  as 
the  others  are  harmful :  "  Celle-la  est  aussi  ndcessaire  que  les 
deux  autres  sont  inutiles,  C'est  elle  qui  marque  le  point  de  vue 
du  drame."1 

In  the  structure  of  the  verse  the  tendency  is  all  towards 
a  free  and  more  supple  versification.  The  greatest  changes 
were  the  freer  and  more  daring  use  of  enjamfoement,  not  only 
between  line  and  line,  but  also  between  one  stanza  and  the 
next,  and  the  more  varied  treatment  of  the  cesura,  which, 
instead  of  being  placed  uniformly  in  the  middle  of  the  alex- 
andrine, was  variously  shifted  in  such  a  way  as  to  break  the 
monotonous  pendulum-like  action  of  the  classical  standard 
verse,  one  pronounced  type  being  the  employment  of  the 
double  cesura  in  such  a  way  as  to  get  the  frankly  ternary 
line.  As  Victor  Hugo  says:2 

"  Nous  faisons  basculer  la  balance  he"mistiche. 

Le  vers,  qui  sur  son  front 

Jadis  portait  toujours  douze  plumes  en  rond, 
Et  sans  cease  sautait  sur  sa  double  raquette, 
Qu'on  nomme  prosodie  et  qu'on  nomme  etiquette 
Rompt  desormais  la  regie  et  trompe  le  ciseau, 
Et  s'echappe,  volant  qui  se  change  en  oiseau 
De  la  cage  ensure    .     .     ." 

The  rime,  "  cette  esclave-reine,  cette  supreme  grace  de  noire  potsie, 
ce  ge'ne'rateur  de  notre  metre"  ts  they  endeavoured  to  render  full 
and  rich  while  giving  it  importance  by  making  it  the  bearer 
of  a  significant  word  in  the  verse. 

The  real  opening  of  the  Eomantic  campaign  dates  from 
1820,  in  which  year  appeared  the  Meditations  of  Lamartine, 
followed  in  1822  by  the  Odes  of  Victor  Hugo.  About  the 
time  of  the  appearance  of  the  latter  was  formed  the  society 
of  young  authors  known  as  the  Cenacle,  the  members  of  which 

1V.  Hugo,  Preface  to  Cromwell. 

zl&ponse  a  un  Acte  d' Accusation.  8  Preface  to  Cromwell. 


238  NINETEENTH   CENTURY 

had,  however,  as  yet  no  definitely  polemical  purpose.  At 
length  in  1827  Victor  Hugo,  in  the  famous  Preface  to  Cromwell, 
flung  down  the  Romantic  challenge,  and  established  himself 
as  the  natural  leader  of  the  movement.  The  Orientales  (1829) 
furnished  a  brilliant  justification  of  the  theories  of  the  Preface, 
and  with  the  representation  of  Hernani  on  the  stage  of  the 
Comddie  Franptise  in  1830  the  important  vantage-ground  of  the 
theatre  was  gained  and  the  reformation  accomplished. 

Beginning  with  the  belles  leltres,  romanticism  was  extended 
first  of  all  to  the  drama,  and  from  that  to  the  other  literary 
forms.  Still  its  strongest  point  was  the  lyric,  while  the  pre- 
dominant characteristic  of  the  whole  movement  was  through- 
out lyrical. 

The  Poetry  of  the  Romantic  period  shows  a  wonderful 
wealth,  an  unrivalled  lyrical  outburst  of  song.  One  man, 
Theophile  Gautier,  with  his  motto  of  "  art  for  art "  and  exces- 
sive attention  to  form,  gives  the  earliest  indication  of  the  chief 
poetic  school  of  the  coming  period.  The  Drama  is  on  the 
whole  the  weakest  part  of  its  work.  The  Novel  develops  a 
wonderful  fertility  and  originality,  while  in  three  writers,  and 
particularly  in  Balzac,  we  find  the  forerunners  of  that  literary 
tendency  which  has  dominated  the  greater  part  of  the  latter 
half  of  the  century.  In  History  a  wonderful  revival  takes 
place,  which  in  quantity,  quality,  artd  solid  worth  so  far  sur- 
passes all  that  had  preceded,  that  French  history  may  be  prac- 
tically dated  from  its  achievements.  Of  Scientific  Criticism 
the  period  furnishes  the  founder  and  greatest  exponent  in 
Sainte-Beuve. 

(b)  Second  Period  (1850  C.-1885  c.). — Realism,  Naturalism. 
The  literature  of  the  second  half  of  the  century  shows  a  double 
reaction — that  against  Romanticism  in  the  so-called  Realism, 
followed  in  turn  by  a  reaction  against  exaggerated  Realism. 
The  same  tendency  appears  towards  the  middle  of  the  century 
in  all  parts  of  the  literature  in  different  forms,  its  general 
characteristics  being  a  change  from  lyricism  to  positivism, 
from  subjectivity  to  objectivity,  from  idealism  to  realism. 

The  personal  note  becomes  less  apparent,  and  in  lieu  of  the 


GENERAL  VIEW  239 

romantic  ideals  truth  and  nature  are  removed  to  the  centre 
of  interest,  and  more  importance  is  attached  to  facts.  In 
short,  the  direction  followed  is  one  that  leads,  on  the  whole, 
to  a  more  prosaic  conception  of  literature. 

In  Poetry  the  reaction  is  represented  by  the  group  of  poets 
known  as  the  Parnassiens,  after  the  collection  of  poems  issued 
by  them  in  1866  under  the  title  of  Parnasse  Contemporain. 
Inspired  by  Theophile  Gautier,  in  whose  poetry  the  transition 
from  the  personal  to  the  impersonal  is  already  seen,  the 
Parnassiens  took  up  the  cry  of  "  art  for  art ",  and  while  pre- 
serving the  impersonal  and  realistic  character,  strove  after 
perfection  of  artistic  form  and  wonderful  effects  of  diction 
and  rime.  Almost  from  the  beginning  they  branched  off, 
however,  in  different  directions,  noticeable  among  them  being 
the  delicate  analysis  of  emotion,  and  a  sympathetic  interest 
in  all  forms  of  human  life,  and  especially  the  simple  and 
unheroic  lives  of  average  humanity. 

In  the  Novel,  the  most  important  literary  branch  of  the 
period,  realism  pursued  the  course  already  marked  out  in  the 
previous  period  by  Stendhal,  Merimee,  and  especially  Balzac, 
its  characteristics  becoming  more  and  more  marked.  The 
great  novelist  of  this  stage  is  Flaubert. 

Towards  1870  another  phase  is  entered  upon  with  the 
so-called  Naturalism,  an  exaggerated  Realism,  the  chief  char- 
acteristics of  which  are  a  linking  of  science  and  fiction  and  the 
painstaking  and  professedly  scientific  analysis  of  gruesome  and 
unwholesome  subjects.  The  name  with  which  this  school  is 
identified  is  that  of  Zola. 

(c)  Third  Period  (beginning  1885  c.). — Finally,  in  the  last 
years  of  the  century  there  has  set  in  a  reaction  against  Natu- 
ralism itself.  The  positive  aims  of  this  movement  are,  how- 
ever, very  difficult  to  determine. 

In  Poetry,  the  new  group  is  known  as  the  Decadents  or 
Symbolistes,  and  as  far  as  their  tendencies  can  be  definitely 
stated  at  all,  they  are  of  a  twofold  nature,  affecting  both 
matter  and  form. 

In  matter  they  react  against  the  unemotionalism,  the  impas- 


240  NINETEENTH   CENTURY 

sibilitt  of  the  Parnassiens,  and  the  scientific  spirit  of  naturalism, 
and  endeavour  to  substitute  for  it  vast  but  vague  ideas  on  the 
emotions  of  the  soul  in  contact  with  the  unfathomable  problems 
of  life  and  being.  The  direction  is,  however,  very  undefined, 
and  the  prevailing  characteristics  are  vagueness,  obscurity,  and 
eccentricity. 

In  form  they  react  against  the  plastic  art  of  Gautier  and  the 
Parnassiens,  with  its  preciseness  of  outline  and  sculptural  hard- 
ness of  form.  They  strive  to  bring  poetry  more  into  affinity 
with  music1  than  painting,  and  so  leave  more  room  for  the 
vague,  the  dreamy,  and  the  mystical.  The  word  by  them  is 
often  treated  as  a  symbol,  which  may  suggest  some  idea  to 
the  esoteric  enthusiast,  but  gives  little  direct  impression  to  the 
uninitiated.  At  the  same  time  they  continue  the  breaking  up 
of  the  line  which  Victor  Hugo  had  begun.  In  the  alexandrine 
the  last  traces  of  regularity  in  the  use  of  the  cesura  vanish, 
new  combinations  are  attempted,  sometimes  long  swinging 
rhythmical  lines  with  very  irregular  rimes,  or  no  rimes  at  all, 
a  sort  of  half-way  form  between  poetry  and  prose. 

Incomparably  the  greatest  among  them  was  Verlaine,  who 
was  a  true  poet  in  spite  of  himself,  and  on  the  whole  remained 
free  from  the  extravagances  of  the  school  which  claimed  him 
as  its  chief. 

In  the  Novel,  Eealism  and  Naturalism  are  both  exhausted, 
and  the  only  positive  result  that  can  be  chronicled  is  the 
liberty  in  which  each  writer  is  left  to  pursue  his  own  idea 
in  his  own  way.  The  only  definite  tendencies  that  can  be 
observed  are  certain  symptoms  of  neo-christianity  and  religious 
mysticism,  and  at  the  same  time  an  interest  in  the  supernatural 
and  transcendental,  the  most  important  influence  during  the 
last  two  decades  having  been  that  received  from  foreign  litera- 
tures, and  above  all  from  George  Eliot,  Tolstoi,  arid  the  Scan- 
dinavians Ibsen  and  Bjcernson. 

In  the  Theatre  the  day  of  Naturalism  is  no  less  over.  The 
Theatre  Libre,  founded  to  champion  Realistic  art,  wearied  its 
public  with  dreary  pessimism,  and  conscientious  but  mono- 
zCp.  Verlaine's  Art  Po&ique:  " De  la  musique  avant  toute  cliose". 


GENERAL  VIEW  241 

tonous  exactitude  of  brutal  detail,  its  only  merits  being  that 
it  set  the  fashion  of  truthfulness  of  representation  and  general 
mise  en  scene,  and  brought  forward  in  De  Curel  a  dramatist  of 
real  power.  Together  with  Lemaitre  he  represents  the  positive 
achievements  of  the  theatre  in  the  last  years,  and  shows  that 
the  vitality  of  the  drama  has  not  passed  away  with  that  of 
dramatic  Realism. 

Thus,  after  many  movements  and  counter-movements  in  the 
course  of  the  century,  we  find  the  literature  of  France  at  its 
close,  as  it  was  at  its  beginning,  in  a  state  of  transition.  We 
can  look  back  after  a  hundred  years  and  see  in  that  period 
many  elements  of  greatness  and  abundant  promise.  In  1800 
appeared  Madame  de  Stael's  epoch-making  De  la  Literature,  in 
\vhich  the  new  aspirations  were  first  clearly  voiced.  In  1900, 
though  certain  tendencies  are  discernible,  it  would  be  a  hard 
matter  to  point  out  as  clearly  whither  the  new  ideals  are  leading. 


FIRST  PERIOD   (1820-1850) 
CHAPTER  I 

POETRY 

The  first  decided  note  of  the  new  movement  was  struck  by 
Alphonse  de  Lamartine. 

Lamartine  was  born  at  Macon,  in  Burgundy,  in  1790,  at  the  family 
seat  of  Milly,  whither  his  father,  an  officer  and  an  ardent  royalist,  had 
retired  after  the  Terror,  to  which  he  nearly  fell  a  victim.  There,  in  a 
united  family  circle  and  in  close  touch  with  nature,  he  grew  up  amid 
influences  which  had  much  to  do  with  forming  his  future  poetical  char- 
acteristics. He  was  first  under  the  charge  of  a  priest,  and  afterwards 
sent  to  different  schools,  none  of  them  of  the  first  quality,  but  left  at 
fifteen,  and  for  some  years  continued  his  own  education  both  at  home 
and  on  his  travels  in  Italy  and  France,  by  a  course  of  the  most  wide  and 
varied  reading.  Like  his  father  an  enthusiastic  royalist,  he  joined  the 
Garde  Royale  on  the  fall  of  Napoleon,  but  soon  left  the  service  again. 
In  1820  he  published  the  Meditations,  which  not  only  announced  the 
new  school,  but  won  him  very  great  fame  and  popularity.  In  1821 
(H643)  Q 


242  NINETEENTH   CENTURY — FIRST   PERIOD 

lie  joined  the  diplomatic  service,  which  took  him  in  turn  to  Naples 
and  Florence.  In  1829  appeared  his  Harmonies,  which  led  to  his  unani- 
mous election  to  the  Academy.  Naturally  Lamartine  disapproved  of 
the  July  Revolution,1  and  refusing  to  recognize  the  new  order,  set  out 
on  a  tour  to  the  East,  visiting  Greece,  Syria,  Palestine,  and  Arabia, 
the  result  being  the  production  on  his  return  of  the  Voyage  en  Orient. 
However,  political  life  had  irresistible  attractions  for  him,  and  in  1833 
he  entered  the  Chamber.  His  Histoire  des  Girondins  (1847)  contri- 
buted greatly  to  the  downfall  of  the  July  Monarchy,  but  after  the 
outbreak  of  the  revolution  of  1848  he  did  much,  as  a  member  of 
provisional  government,  to  prevent  excesses  and  preserve  order.  With1 
the  establishment  of  the  Empire  under  Napoleon  III  he  retired  froi; 
public  life  and  devoted  himself  entirely  to  literary  work.  During  the\ 
last  part  of  his  life  he  was  much  troubled  by  money  difficulties,  whicl 
compelled  him  to  do  much  that  was  little  better  than  literary  hack-work. ' 
Even  thus,  however,  he  could  not  meet  his  obligations,  and  had  to  b 
relieved  by  the  charities  of  the  nation  and  government.  He  died  in  1869. 

His  principal  works  are:  Meditations  Pottiques  (1820),  Nou- 
velles  Meditations  (1823),  Harmonies  Pottiques  et  Religieuses 
(1829),  Voyage  en  Orient  (1835),  Jocelyn  (1836),  La  Chute 
(Pun  Ange  (1838),  Recueillements  Poetiques  (1839),  Histoire  des 
Girondins  (1847),  Confidences  (1849),  and  Nouvelles  Confidences 
(1851). 

The  first  to  appear  of  Lamartine's  works,  and  the  most 
important  for  the  history  of  literature,  was  the  Meditations 
in  1820,  which  alone  would  suffice  to  give  him  a  leading 
position  in  the  literature  of  the  century.  These  poems  were 
the  spontaneous  expression  of  his  most  intimate  thoughts  and 
emotions,  composed  not  with  a  view  to  literary  effect,  but 
under  the  necessity  of  giving  shape  and  form  to  his  own 
spiritual  experiences,  and  it  was  this  very  spontaneity,  this 
pure  lyricism,  which  made  them  appeal  so  forcibly  to  their 
first  readers.  Their  success  and  popularity  was  enormous;  they 
came  like  a  revelation  to  those  who  found  here  voiced  what 
had  so  long  been  unconsciously  present  in  their  own  hearts. 
It  was  the  first  step  towards  the  literary  revolution,  and  with 

1  The  Revolution  by  which,  in  1830,  the  Bourbon  dynasty  was  overthrown, 
Charles  X  forced  to  abdicate,  and  the  Orleanist  Louis  Philippe,  eldest  son 
of  the  Due  d'Orleans,  known  as  Philippe  Egalite",  or  the  citizen  king, 
raised  to  the  throne. 


POETRY  243 

it  the  lyrical  character  of  Romanticism  was  once  and  for  all 
defined.  But  not  only  did  the  poet  speak  of  the  workings  of 
his  own  soul,  he  touched  also  on  nature,  religion,  and  all  the 
themes  which  are  the  natural  domain  of  lyric  art.  Among 
the  best  known  of  these  poems  are  Le  Lac,  L'Automne,  La 
Priere,  ImmortaliU.  But  true  and  admirable  as  is  the  inspira- 
tion of  the  Meditations,  the  language  and  form  are  by  no  means 
perfect.  An  amateur  in  poetry,  as  he  called  himself,  he  cared 
less  for  the  manner  than  the  matter  of  his  lyrics,  and  the 
consequence  is  that  we  find  many  surface  flaws — repetitions, 
technical  faults  and  imperfections.  And  these  failings  unfor- 
tunately grow  more  pronounced  in  his  later  works.  The 
Nouvelles  Meditations  (1823)  and  the  Harmonies  (1829)  are  a 
continuation  of  the  same  strain,  only  that,  owing  to  the  want 
of  novelty  as  compared  with  the  first  outburst,  the  inferior 
spontaneity,  and  an  increased  faultiness  of  workmanship  and 
manner,  they  produced,  and  still  produce,  a  weaker  and  less 
favourable  impression.  Yet  this  modified  praise  must  not  be 
misunderstood,  for  they  possess  still  the  great  and  original 
merits  of  the  first  Meditations  if  in  a  lesser  degree,  the  Har- 
monies ranking  after  them  as  the  author's  second-best  work. 
Jocelyn  (1836),  a  kind  of  epic  idyll  written  in  alexandrines, 
passes  from  the  purely  personal  to  the  symbolic  and  human 
note.  It  is,  like  the  Chute  d'un  Ange  which  followed  it,  a 
fragment,  as  it  were,  of  a  great  epic  on  the  spiritual  destinies 
of  mankind;  but  though  the  poet  may  have  had  vaguely  the 
conception  of  such  a  work  it  was  never  carried  into  execution. 
Jocelyn  is  the  story  of  a  man  who  sacrifices  his  vocation,  his 
ambitions,  his  heart's  desires,  whose  whole  life  is  a  sacrifice, 
and  who  in  this  renunciation  finds  peace  and  rest.  In  the 
Chute  d'un  Ange  (1838),  renunciation  is  once  more  the  theme. 
In  Jocelyn  we  have  the  peasant's  son  who  gives  up  his  inherit- 
ance to  provide  his  sister's  dowry,  and  sacrifices  his  love  to 
a  sense  of  duty;  while  in  the  former  poem  the  angel  Cedar  is 
represented  as  renouncing  heaven  itself,  and  consenting  to  live 
on  earth  for  the  love  of  Daidha,  a  daughter  of  the  giants.  But 
the  subject  was  not  suited  to  Lamartine's  genius,  and  the 


244  NINETEENTH   CENTURY — FIRST   PERIOD 

work,  in  spite  of  the  merits  of  individual  parts,  is  on  the 
whole  a  failure — often  exaggerated  and  unreal  and  in  great 
part  tedious.  With  the  Recueillements  (1839)  he  returns  to 
the  manner  of  his  first  works,  but  they  have  nothing  of 
importance  to  add  and  can  claim  no  striking  merit. 

As  a  prose  writer  Lamartine  is  of  little  importance  com- 
paratively, although  a  few  words  may  be  said  of  three  out  of 
his  numerous  prose  writings. 

The  Foyage  en  Orient  (1835)  shows  the  same  character  of 
improvisation  that  is  apparent  throughout  his  work,  and  along 
with  many  striking  passages  of  description  contains  much  that 
is  trivial. 

The  Histoire  des  Girondins  (1847),  his  most  important  work 
in  prose,  which  exercised  great  influence  in  its  day,  has  little 
purely  historical  value,  but  contains  some  admirable  examples 
of  dramatic  narrative,  and  is  an  eloquent  expression  of  the 
democratic  ideas  of  the  time. 

Lastly,  the  Confidences  (1849-1851)  necessarily  contain  very 
much  that  is  interesting,  but  suffer  from  the  fault  of  being  too 
confidential,  the  trivial  and  the  important  being  confounded 
with  a  strange  want  of  discrimination. 

Lamartine  is  a  striking  instance  of  a  man  who  with  his 
first  literary  venture  produced  his  best  and  most  important 
work.  In  the  spontaneity  of  these  first  lyrics,  their  simple 
communion  with  nature,  the  gentle,  mildly-melancholy  out- 
pourings that  come  straight  from  the  heart,  in  a  word,  in  their 
personal  note  and  their  pure  lyricism  the  true  significance  of 
Lamartine  is  to  be  found.  God  in  nature  and  the  whole  of 
nature  in  man's  soul — such  is  the  theme  which  inspires  him 
and  which  in  his  verses  inspired  others.  So  he  says  himself: 
"  Quelle  qu'ait  tU,  quelle  que-puisse  etre  encore  la  diversiU  de  ces 
impressions  jettes  par  la  nature  dans  mon  time,  et  par  mon  dme  dans 
mes  vers,  le  fond  en  fut  toujours  un  profond  instinct  de  la  DiviniU 
dans  toutes  choses  ". 

Such  was  the  one  true  and  original  message  he  had  to  tell, 
and  which  in  its  first  naive  telling  was  so  admirable,  but 
which  in  the  conscious  and  voluntary  repetitions  that  followed 


POETRY  245 

gained  nothing  and  had  much  to  lose.  In  spite  of  the  irregu- 
larities that  were  the  natural  accompaniment  of  his  rapid  and 
unlaboured  composition,  his  verse  has  a  delicate  harmonious 
beauty  hitherto  unknown  in  French  poetry,  and  which  in  its 
own  style  has  never  been  surpassed. 

In  striking  opposition  to  Lamartine  stands  another  great 
Romantic  poet,  Alfred  de  Vigny,  born  at  Loches  in  Touraine 
in  1797.  In  1814  he  became  a  sub-lieutenant  of  the  Guards, 
and  remained  in  the  army  for  fourteen  years,  leaving  it  at 
the  age  of  thirty-one  in  order  to  devote  himself  exclusively 
to  literature.  The  latter  part  of  his  life  he  spent  mostly  in 
seclusion,  his  natural  melancholy  being  embittered  by  the 
want  of  recognition  which  he  suffered  at  the  hands  of  his 
contemporaries.  He  died  in  1863. 

The  works  of  De  Vigny  comprise  (a)  his  poetical  works, 
which  consist  of  the  Pocmes  Antiques  et  Modernes  (1822-1826), 
and  the  collection  known  as  Destinies,  not  published  under  this 
title  till  1863;  (b)  his  prose  works,  consisting  of  plays,  the  best 
being  Chatterton  (1835),  and  novels — Cinq-Mars  (1826),  Stello 
(1832),  Grandeur  et  Servitude  Militaires  (1835). 

Among  the  Pocmes  Antiques  et  Modernes  (1822-1826)  the 
finest  are  Moise,  which  describes  the  last  moments  of  the  great 
lawgiver,  weary  of  the  isolation  which  has  been  the  necessary 
condition  of  his  greatness — the  moral  being  that  genius  pre- 
destines to  sorrow;  Moa,  a  mystic  story  of  a  sister  of  the 
angels,  sprung  from  a  tear  of  Christ,  who  is  seized  with  pity 
and  sympathy  for  the  fallen  archangel,  and  descends  with  him 
to  his  place  of  torture;  and  Le  Dduge,  which  tells  in  beautiful 
and  touching  language  how  a  shepherd  and  a  maiden,  after 
watching  from  the  top  of  Mount  Ararat  the  rising  of  the 
waters,  are  eventually  swallowed  up  in  them. 

In  this  first  volume  the  author's  gloomy  pessimism  and 
melancholy  are  already  strongly  marked.  In  each  of  them 
some  one  idea  is  taken  and  treated  from  the  philosophical 
point  of  view. 

Of  the  same  nature  was  the  collection  entitled  Destinies,  his 
only  other  considerable  poetic  production.  In  this  the  note  of 


246  NINETEENTH   CENTURY — FIIIST   PERIOD 

melancholy  and  pessimism,  and  the  necessity  for  stoicism  and 
resignation,  are  even  more  strongly  emphasized, 

The  subject  of  the  prose  drama  Cliatterton  (1835)  is  the  sad 
life  of  the  wonderful  boy-poet.  The  miseries  to  which  he 
was  subjected  by  his  sensitive  pride,  and  the  want  of  appre- 
ciation of  the  material  world  around  him,  are  very  sympa- 
thetically treated  by  one  who  had  much  in  common  with  his 
hero. 

Cinq-Mars  (1826)  is  a  historical  novel,  somewhat  in  the  style 
of  Scott.  Cinq-Mars,  a  brilliant  young  nobleman,  is  brought 
to  court  by  Richelieu,  but  leaves  him  for  the  king,  and  on 
the  failure  of  a  plot  to  overthrow  the  cardinal,  is  executed. 
It  is  valuable  as  containing  a  lively  and  reliable  picture  of  the 
life  of  the  period  it  treats. 

Alfred  De  Vigny  was  before  all  a  thinker,  nearly  every 
one  of  his  works  being  guided  by  some  clearly  conceived 
idea,  while  the  direction  which  his  thought  took  was  a  very 
pronounced  one.  All  life  seemed  to  him  to  be  an  evil,  all  our 
noblest  feelings  and  faculties  only  instruments  of  our  suffering. 
A  reasoned  pessimism  was  his  doctrine,  and  his  remedy  for 
it,  or  rather  the  attitude  he  recommended  towards  it,  haughty 
resignation. 

The  whole  of  his  philosophy  is  eloquently  summed  up  by 
himself  in  these  four  lines  of  La  Mart  du  Loup,  one  of  his  finest 
shorter  poems : — 

"  Gtmir,  pleurcr,  prier  est  fyalement  Idche. 
Fais  energiquement  to  longue  et  lourde  tdcke 
Dans  la  voie  oil  le  sort  a  voulu  t'appder. 
Puis,  apres,  comme  moi,  souffre  et  meurs  sans  parler." 

His  style  is  sober  and  of  severe  simplicity,  delicate  and  at 
the  same  time  strong;  yet  though  with  him  the  thought  was 
the  first  consideration,  he  laboured  to  give  it  its  proper  setting, 
and  the  artistic  value  of  much  of  his  work  is  very  consider- 
able. 

We  now  come  to  the  leader,  the  embodiment  of  the  Ro- 
mantic school,  Victor  Hugo,  the  greatest  of  all  French  poets, 
and  one  of  the  greatest  in  the  world's  literature.  For  con- 


POETRY  247 

venience  sake  we  shall  take  the  whole  of  his  work  together — 
poetry,  drama,  and  fiction. 

Marie  Victor  Hugo  was  born  at  Besan^n  in  1802,  the  son  of  a  dis- 
tinguished officer  of  the  Empire,  while  his  mother  was  a  Vendean  and  of 
royalist  sympathies.  During  his  childhood  he  was  taken  with  the  rest  of 
the  family  to  Italy  and  Spain,  seeing  in  this  way  Rome,  Florence,  Naples, 
and  Madrid.  However,  he  was  educated  principally  at  Paris,  though 
the  formal  education  he  received  was  not  very  considerable.  Already 
when  very  young  he  competed  and  won  prizes  in  literary  competitions, 
notably  those  of  the  Academy  and  the  Jeux  Floraux  of  Toulouse.  In 
1822  appeared  his  first  Odes  et  Ballades,  when  he  was  only  twenty  years 
of  age,  which  at  once  made  him  famous  and  won  for  him  the  protec- 
tion of  Chateaubriand  and  the  favour  of  Louis  XVIII.  Of  the  part 
this  collection  played  in  the  rise  of  the  Romantic  party,  and  how  Hugo, 
though  standing  somewhat  aloof  from  the  earlier  Cdnacle,  became  by 
right  of  genius  the  avowed  leader  of  the  movement  on  the  appearance 
of  the  second  Odes  ct  Ballades  (1826),  Cromwell  (1827),  and,  above  all,  the 
Orientates  (1829)  and  Hernani  (1830),  we  have  already  spoken  elsewhere. 

Meantime  his  political  creed  had  been  undergoing  a  transformation. 
From  being  an  ardent  Royalist  he  became  an  enthusiastic  admirer  of 
Napoleon,  while  in  1845,  under  the  July  monarchy,  he  entered  the 
Chamber  as  a  Peer  of  France,  and  in  1849  was  sent  to  the  Chambre 
Constituante  as  a  representative  of  the  capital.  There  he  sat  till  1851, 
his  sympathies  more  and  more  inclining  to  the  extreme  Republicans. 
Being  included  in  the  proscription  which  followed  the  coup  d'etat,  he  fled 
to  Brussels,  and  thence  to  Jersey  and  afterwards  to  Guernsey,  where 
he  spent  the  next  eighteen  years.  On  the  fall  of  the  Empire  he  returned 
to  Paris,  from  which  time  till  his  death  he  played  a  very  considerable 
political  part  as  member  of  the  National  Assembly  and  later  as  senator. 
He  died  on  May  22,  1885,  and  was  buried  amid  funeral  ceremonies  that 
were  a  veritable  apotheosis. 

The  following  is  a  classified  list  of  the  principal  works  of 
Victor  Hugo: — 

(a)  Poetry:— Odes  et  Ballades  (1822-1828),  Orientate  (1829), 
Les  Feuilles  d'Automm  (1831),  Les  Chants  du  Crtpuscule  (1835), 
Les  Voix  Intdrieures  (1837),  Les  Rayons  et  les  Ombres  (1840), 
Les  Chdtiments  (1852),  Les  Contemplations  (1856),  Ltgende  des 
Sticks  (first  two  volumes,  1859),  Chansons  des  Hues  et  des  Bois 
(1865),  L'Annte  Terrible  (1872),  Legende  des  Sticks  (2nd  part, 
1876),  L'Art  d'etre  Grand-phe  (1877),  Les  Quatre  Vents  de 
VEsprit  (1881). 


248  NINETEENTH   CENTURY — FIRST   PERIOD 

(b)  Drama:1— Cromwell  (1827),  Ifernani  (1830),  Marion  De- 
lorme  (1831),  Le  Roi  s 'amuse  (1832),  Lucrece  B&rgia  and  Marie 
Tudor  (1833),  Ruy  Bias  (1838),  Les  Burgraves  (1843). 

(c)  Prose  Writings:  —  Han  d'Islande  (1823),  Bug  Jar  gal 
(1825),  Notre-Dame  de  Paris  (1831),  NapdUm  le  Petit  (1852), 
Les  Mise'rables  (1862),  William  Shakespeare  (1864),  Les  Travai- 
lleurs  de  la  Mer  (1866),  L'Homme  qui  rit  (1869),  Quatre-vingt- 
treize  (1874),  Histoire  d'un  Crime  (1877). 

(a)  It  is  as  a  Poet  that  Victor  Hugo  is  most  important,  and 
the  quantity  as  well  as  quality  of  his  poetic  production  is 
remarkable.  Already  at  the  age  of  twenty  he  produced,  in 
the  first  Odes  et  Ballades,  a  collection  of  verse  which,  if  it  did 
not  show  the  power  and  originality  of  his  later  work,  displayed 
a  wonderful  fertility  of  imagination,  adaptability  of  form,  and 
command  of  rime  and  rhythm.  The  second  collection  in 
1826  showed  a  marked  advance  in  every  branch  of  the  poetic 
art,  and  won  the  warmest  praise  from  the  already  aged 
Chateaubriand,  still  the  acknowledged  sovereign  of  letters. 
With  the  Orientales,  which  followed  three  years  later,  he  stepped 
right  to  the  very  forefront,  and  was  hailed  as  the  greatest  poet 
of  the  day,  while  by  their  wealth  of  imagination,  glow  of 
colour,  and  brilliance  of  form  these  poems  revealed  clearly  the 
true  aspirations  of  the  rising  romantic  school. 

The  four  following  collections,  which  all  appeared  in  the 
decade  from  1830  to  1840,  the  Feuilles  d'Automne,  Chants  du 
Crdpuscule,  Voix  Intdrieures,  and  Rayons  et  Ombres,  show  the  poet 
arriving  at  the  full  command  of  his  poetic  powers,  with  both 
his  characteristic  virtues,  and  also  his  faults  and  mannerisms, 
growing  more  pronounced.  They  evince  a  closer  sympathy 
with  human  joys  and  sufferings  than  had  been  revealed  in  the 
previous  volumes,  and  strike  on  the  whole  a  deeper  and  truer 
note.  , 

Les  Chdtiments,  which  appeared  from  Guernsey  in  1853,  after 
Hugo's  forced  departure  from  Paris,  were  launched  against 
Napoleon  III,  the  cause  of  his  exile.  In  spite  of  their  ex- 
aggerated tone,  and  the  somewhat  unconvincing  mass  of 
'•  Le  Roi  s'amuse,  Lucrece  Borgia,  Marie  Tudor,  are  in  prose. 


POETRY  249 

unflattering  epithets  with  which  he  fairly  overwhelms  the 
unfortunate  object  of  his  attack,  who  becomes  in  his  heated 
imagination  a  living  example  of  every  conceivable  vice,  they 
are  in  the  main  very  brilliant  satire,  and  attain  at  times  to 
true  eloquence.  Speaking  of  his  resolution  still  to  defy  the 
tyrant  in  spite  of  exile  and  persecution,  and  even  though 
abandoned  by  his  fellows,  he  makes  a  fine  point  in  the  lines : 

"Si  Von  nest  plus  que  mille,  eh  liie.nl  fen  suis.   Si  mJ&ine, 
Us  ne  sont  plus  que  cent,  jc  brave  encore  Sylla; 
S'tt  en  demeure  dix,  je  serai  le  dixieme; 
Et  s'il  n'en  reste  qu'un,  je  serai  celui-la" 

Les  Contemplations,  of  which  both  volumes  appeared  in  1856, 
contains  poems  of  more  or  less  personal  character,  dealing  with 
the  years  from  1830  to  1856.  Those  of  the  first  period,  down 
to  1843,  bear  the  title  of  Autrefois;  those  of  the  second,  that  of 
Aujourd'hui.  The  author  himself  calls  them  Les  Mdmoires  d'une 
Ame,  and  tells  us  that  "une  destinee  est  farite  la  jour  a  jour".  The 
year  of  division  is  the  date  of  the  drowning  of  his  daughter 
Leopoldine,  with  her  husband  M.  Vacquerie,  during  a  pleasure 
trip  on  the  Seine :  "  La  joie  .  .  .  s'effeuille  page  &  page  dans  le 
tome  premier  qui  est  I'espe'rance,  et  disparait  dans  le  tome  second,  qui 
est  le  deuil.  ,  .  .  Autrefois,  Aujourd'hui  Un  aUme  les  stpare,  le 
tombeau."  The  first  volume  contains  the  famous  Expanse  &  un 
Ade  d 'Accusation,  while  in  both  volumes  are  found  pieces  of 
remarkable  beauty. 

In  1859  appeared  the  first  two  volumes  of  the  Lfyende  des 
Siecles,  the  third  not  till  seventeen  years  later.  In  these 
wonderful  collections  of  poems  the  poet  brings  before  our  eyes 
typical  scenes  from  the  history  of  the  world  down  to  the 
present  time,  their  purpose  being  to  set  forth  in  striking  and 
dramatic  pictures  scenes  illustrative  of  the  great  epochs  of 
human  life  on  earth.  They  display  fully  his  marvellous  narra- 
tive power,  and  in  their  variety  of  music,  range  of  theme,  and 
alternate  dignity  and  tenderness  have  seldom  been  rivalled. 
Among  the  most  famous  and  the  best  is  the  one  called  Ruth  et 
Booz,  a  poem  which  gives  contradiction  to  the  often-repeated 
statement  that  Victor  Hugo  was  incapable  of  simplicity.  Ex- 


250  NINETEENTH   CENTURY— FIRST   PERIOD 

quisitely  sober  and  delicate  are  the  words  in  which  we  are  told 
how  Ruth,  lying  at  the  feet  of  Boaz, 

"  »e  demandait, 

Immobile,  ouvrant  I'ceil  d  moitti  sous  scs  voiles, 
Quel  dieu,  quel  moissonneur  de  I'tterncl  6t6 
Avait,  en  s'en  attant,  n^gligemmcnt  jet6 
Cette  faucilie  d'or  dans  le  cJvamp  des  Moilcs". 

None  of  the  remaining  verse  shows  any  strikingly  original 
qualities  or  advance  on  his  previous  work 

L'Annde  Terrible  gives  a  series  of  stirring  pictures  of  the  war; 
L'Art  d'etre  Grand-pere  shows  in  a  very  human  way  the  sympa- 
thetic interest  he  took  in  all  the  pursuits  and  in  the  society 
of  his  two  little  grandchildren;  Les  Quatre  Vents  de  I' Esprit, 
written  in  1881,  when  he  was  verging  on  his  eightieth  year, 
shows  at  times  his  wonderful  powers  still  undiminished.  It  is 
in  four  books — satiric,  dramatic,  lyric,  and  epic. 

(b)  We  will  next  speak  of  the  Dramas,  all  the  best  of  which 
were  written  in  the  fourth  decade  of  the  century,  and  which, 
even  the  most  successful,  are  not  to  be  compared  in  intrinsic 
worth  with  his  poetic  achievement.  The  most  successful,  the 
only  real  survivors — on  the  stage  at  any  rate — and  the  best  are 
Hernani  (1830)  and  Buy  Bias  (1838).  The  first  of  the  series, 
Cromwell  (1827),  was  less  remarkable  for  the  play  itself  than  for 
the  Preface,  the  importance  of  which  in  connection  with  the 
early  Romantic  movement  has  been  already  discussed.  Crom- 
well was  never  acted,  and  it  is  almost  incapable  of  production, 
being  in  fact  less  a  play  than  a  romance  in  dramatic  form. 
Already  in  Cromwell,  however,  Hugo's  great  dramatic  principle 
is  apparent — the  blending  of  two  opposite  principles  for  the 
attainment  of  what  he  considered  a  higher  dramatic  truth. 
Thus  we  have  Cromwell  the  stern  Puritan  and  strong  leader 
of  men,  who  is  at  the  same  time  a  buffoon  in  his  moments  of 
privacy;  or,  to  quote  the  author's  own  words:  "  C'est  un  etre 
complexe  .  .  .  compose'  de  tons  les  contraires  .  .  .  plein  de  gdnie  et 
de  petitesse  .  .  .  hypocrite  et  fanatique  .  .  .  grotesque  et  sublime". 
This  dramatic  procedure  is  seen  in  all  his  later  plays,  and  is 
the  rcot-idea  of  all  his  dramatic  creation.  So  Hernani  is  both 


POETRY  251 

bandit  and  hero;  Ruy  Bias,  lackey,  and  a  model  of  greatness 
and  virtue — the  highest  moral  worth  in  the  lowest  social 
station ;  Marion  Delorme,  the  noble  passion  of  love  in  the  heart 
of  a  courtesan;  Le  Eoi  s' amuse  presents  in  the  court  fool, 
Triboulet,  the  most  degraded  of  human  natures,  redeemed  by 
paternal  love ;  Lucrkce  Borgia,  all  the  vices,  and  a  great  example 
of  maternal  devotion;  or,  in  Victor  Hugo's  own  words:  "La 
materniU  purifiant  la  difformiU  morale".  As  already  said,  the 
two  most  famous  and  the  best  are  Hernani  and  Ruy  Bias. 

Hernani,  who  is  an  outlaw  and  bandit,  and  at  the  same  time  a  duke 
and  grandee  of  Spain,  is  the  successful  rival  of  Ruy  Gomez  for  the  hand 
of  his  niece  and  ward,  Dona  Sol.  Pressed  by  the  officers  of  the  king, 
Hernani  is  successfully  concealed  by  Ruy  Gomez  in  his  castle  and  saved. 
The  latter,  however,  has  discovered  his  love  for  his  niece,  and  Hernani  is 
only  allowed  to  depart  with  his  life  on  vowing  by  the  head  of  his  father 
to  take  the  life  so  spared  with  his  own  hand  whenever  he  shall  hear  the 
sound  of  the  horn,  which  he  detaches  from  his  waist  and  hands  to  Ruy 
Gomez.  Hernani  is  restored  to  favour  and  regains  his  estates,  and  with 
his  betrothal  to  Dona  Sol  the  cup  of  his  happiness  seems  to  be  full,  when 
at  the  masquerade  which  follows  their  betrothal  a  sinister  figure  appears. 
Hernani  hears  the  fatal  horn,  and  in  the  presence  of  Ruy  Gomez  both 
he  and  Dona  Sol  poison  themselves. 

Ruy  Bias  is  a  lackey  who  is  introduced  to  court  by  a  grandee,  Don 
Salluste,  in  the  name  of  his  cousin,  Don  Cesar,  with  the  object  of  en- 
tangling and  ruining  the  queen.  Ruy  Bias,  well  educated  and  possessed 
of  great  talents,  rapidly  rises,  and  under  his  assumed  name  and  quality 
becomes  minister.  He  is  madly  in  love  with  the  queen,  and  the  falseness 
and  hopelessness  of  his  position,  together  with  the  pitiless  humiliations 
to  which  Don  Salluste  subjects  him,  at  last  exhaust  his  endurance,  and 
he  first  slays  his  persecutor  and  afterwards  poisons  himself. 

Les  Bur  graves  (1843),  the  last,  was  more  extravagantly  anti- 
thetical and  full  of  surprises  than  all  the  others,  and  with 
its  lavish  use  of  the  most  ordinary  stage  tricks,  meetings, 
recognitions  and  coincidences,  is  the  purest  melodrama  as  far 
as  its  merely  dramatic  side  is  concerned,  though  even  the 
worst  of  Victor  Hugo's  dramas  abounds  in  fine  lyrical  passages. 

(c)  Of  his  Prose  writings  by  far  the  most  important  is  the 
novel  Notre-Dame  de  Paris  (1831),  a  historical  romance  of  Paris 
in  the  time  of  Louis  XI,  in  which  the  ancient  capital  of  the 
15th  century,  with  all  the  different  classes  of  its  inhabitants, 


252  NINETEENTH   CENTURY — FIRST   PERIOD 

nobility,  clergy,  citizens,  and  people,  are  brought  in  a  very 
graphic  way  before  our  eyes.  Naturally  it  is  full  of  the 
characteristic  antitheses  and  startling  contrasts,  with  a  gro- 
tesqueness  which  at  times  makes  it  more  like  a  phantasmagoria 
than  living  reality.  The  personages  themselves  have  little 
individuality.  More  real  are  the  city  itself  and  its  teeming 
population ;  while  the  central  figure  of  the  whole  is  the  sombre 
cathedral,  which  looms  vast,  mysterious,  and  incommensurable, 
like  a  personification  of  the  middle  ages  themselves. 

Already  before  Notre-Dame  had  appeared  the  two  wildly 
romantic  novels  Han  d'Islande  (1823)  and  Bug  Jargal  (1818- 
1826).  Napotton  le  Petit  (1852)  was  the  prose  equivalent  of 
the  Chdtiments  in  the  castigation  of  his  enemy.  But  after 
Notre-Dame  the  most  important  of  Victor  Hugo's  romances  is 
Les  Misdrables,  of  which  the  ten  volumes  appeared  in  1862. 
It  is  a  comprehensive  picture  of  the  life  of  the  day,  into 
which  the  author,  no  longer  fettered  by  the  limitations  of  the 
stage,  poured  the  most  varied  elements,  with  little  care  to  fit 
them  suitably  into  the  framework  of  the  story,  the  result 
being  a  mass  of  digressions  and  irrelevancies  which  at  times 
is  almost  chaotic. 

The  story  woven  through  the  whole  is  briefly  as  follows: — 

Jean  Valjean,  a  released  convict,  repents,  and  under  the  name  of 
M.  Madeleine  becomes  a  rich  and  respectable  member  of  society.  To 
save  another  from  suspicion  he  denounces  himself,  and  is  once  more 
imprisoned,  but  escapes.  He  rescues  and  adopts  a  young  girl,  Cosette, 
whom  he  marries  to  Marius,  confessing  to  the  latter  who  he  is,  but  not 
making  any  mention  of  his  good  deeds.  Leaving  them  he  withdraws 
from  the  world,  but  before  he  dies  learns  that  his  nobility  is  recognized 
and  appreciated  by  those  he  loves. 

Along  with  the  inevitable  improbabilities  and  exaggerations 
this  enormous  work  has  many  purely  admirable  passages,  the 
struggles  in  the  soul  of  the  hero  as  he  is  fighting  his  way 
back  to  virtue  being  told  with  a  delicacy  and  psychological 
insight  which  the  author  has  nowhere  else  attained. 

Les  Travailleurs  de  la  Mer  (1866)  is  an  exquisite  little  idyll 
of  passion  and  adventure;  L'Homme  qui  Hit  (1869),  an  ex- 


POETRY  253 

travagant  but  powerful  romance,  which  purports  to  be  histori- 
cal; Quatre-vingt-treize  (1874),  another  historical  romance;  and 
the  Histoire  d'un  Crime  (1877)  has  been  described  as  the 
"  apotheosis  of  the  Special  Correspondent ". 

Much  as  Victor  Hugo  liked  to  pose  as  the  penseur,  and 
though  no  doubt  he  was  of  the  opinion  that  therein  lay  his 
strength  and  his  importance  for  the  human  race,  there  is 
nothing  very  remarkable  in  his  thought  or  ideas.  Though 
his  constant  endeavour  is  to  teach  and  enlighten,  his  idea  not 
that  of  "Tart pour  I'art",  but  rather  of  "I'ari pour  VhumaniU", 
he  has  nothing  very  new  or  original  to  say,  and  what  messages 
he  has  to  deliver  are  obscured  and  disfigured  from  the  teacher's 
point  of  view  by  his  characteristic  tendency  to  antithesis  and 
exaggeration.  His  mind  does  not  work  by  the  logical  pro- 
cesses of  thought  habitual  to  a  philosopher,  but  by  the  intuitive 
methods  of  the  poet — he  thinks  not  in  ideas  but  in  images. 

Moreover,  with  rare  exceptions,  he  shows  very  little  power 
of  reading  the  workings  of  the  human  heart — little  psycho- 
logical insight.  Where  his  great  and  surpassing  merit  lies 
is  in  his  command  of  form,  and  there  he  shows  not  merely 
skill  but  genius.  He  had  one  of  the  largest  vocabularies  that 
ever  mortal  employed,  and  his  mastery  of  it  is  always  supreme 
and  unerring.  For  "  the  word  "  he  had  a  special  sense,  feeling 
it  as  an  entity  with  laws  and  properties  of  its  own,  possessing 
not  only  meaning  and  sound,  but  as  it  were  colour  and  indi- 
viduality. The  gift  of  personifying  imagination  and  imagery 
he  possessed  in  the  highest  degree,  being  often  indeed  tempted 
by  them  to  the  excesses  of  exaggeration  and  meaningless  anti- 
thesis. All  contrasts  and  reliefs  of  light  and  shade  appealed 
forcibly  to  his  nature,  and  such,  both  in  the  literal  and  figura- 
tive, are  everywhere  found  throughout  his  work. 

He  is  a  master  of  rime  and  rhythm,  while  of  his  innovations 
in  versification  mention  has  already  been  made  elsewhere. 
He  has  an  inexhaustible  power  of  inventing  new  rhythms  as 
displayed  throughout  his  poetic  work,  and  his  gift  of  adapting 
sound  to  sense,  poetic  form  to  the  subject,  reveals  the  true 
artist. 


254  NINETEENTH   CENTURY— FIRST  PERIOD 

His  prose  is  on  the  whole  far  inferior  to  his  verse,  and 
naturally  so,  as  some  of  his  greatest  qualities — those  of  the 
harmonist  and  rersifier — are  not  brought  into  play;  his  drama, 
apart  from  the  beautiful  lyrical  passages  with  which  it  abounds, 
is  of  no  exceptional  merit,  and  is  only  too  apt  to  be  suggestive 
of  melodrama.  Where  he  is  really  great,  probably  greater 
than  any  other  Frenchman,  and  certainly  surpassed  by  none, 
is  in  lyric  poetry,  where  the  range  and  variety  of  subjects, 
the  music  and  grace  of  form  and  versification,  the  warmth 
and  colour  of  style,  and  the  spontaneity  of  the  emotions,  form 
a  body  of  qualities  that  could  only  be  found  in  a  supreme 
master  of  the  art. 

In  spite  of  his  faults  he  has  left  behind  a  body  of  work 
wonderful  .in  its  quantity  and  in  many  of  its  qualities,  in  the 
universality  of  its  interests,  the  variety  of  its  music,  and  above 
all  in  its  rare  lyrical  beauties.  His  is  a  figure  which  looms 
large  not  only  in  the  literature  of  France  but  of  the  world. 

Probably  the  greatest  lyric  poet  of  France,  in  the  narrower 
sense,  is  Alfred  de  Musset. 

De  Musset  was  born  at  Paris  in  1810.  In  1828  he  was  already  at  the 
age  of  eighteen  introduced  into  the  Cdnacle,  and  in  ]  830,  with  the  Contes 
d'Espagne  et  d' Italic,  became  famous,  and  one  of  the  recognized  Romantic 
leaders.  However,  his  enthusiasm  for  the  new  creed  did  not  last,  and 
except  at  the  outset  of  his  career  he  was  only  a  half-hearted  Romanticist, 
avowing  his  admiration  for  their  Mte-noire — Racine,  and  mildly  poking 
fun  at  some  of  their  extravagances.  In  1833  took  place  his  meeting 
with  George  Sand,  and  during  the  years  1833  and  1834  they  were  to- 
gether in  Italy,  but  in  the  latter  year  De  Musset  left  her  and  returned 
to  Paris,  and  in  the  following  year,  1835,  the  final  rupture  occurred. 
This  episode  left  indelible  traces  in  his  life  and  writings.  Most  of  his 
best  work  was  done  before  the  age  of  thirty,  after  which,  with  energies 
and  strength  exhausted  by  the  irregularities  of  his  life,  he  produced  com- 
paratively little.  He  died  in  Paris  in  1857,  at  the  early  age  of  forty-six. 

His  principal  works  are: — Contes  d'Espagne  et  d'ltalie  (1830), 
Spectacle  dans  un  Fauteuil  (1832),  Rolla  (1835),  Les  Nuits  (1835- 
1837),  Confession  d'un  Enfant  du  Sttcle  (1836),  in  prose;  and 
among  his  theatrical  pieces,  which  he  collected  in  1856  under 
the  title  of  Comedies  et  Proverbes,  Lorenzaccio,  Carmoisine,  On  ne 


POETRY  255 

badine  pas  avec  I 'amour,  and  II  ne  faut  jurer  de  rien  should  be 
especially  mentioned. 

The  Conies  d'Espagne  et  d'ltalie,  which  were  written  in  the 
ardour  of  his  early  romantic  enthusiasm,  are  lyrics  and  verse 
tales  glowing  with  all  the  warmth  and  colour  of  the  South, 
in  which,  at  the  same  time,  licence  and  extravagance  run 
riot. 

The  Spectacle  dans  un  Fauteuil  is  remarkable  for  one  of  its 
two  dramatic  pieces,  La  Coupe  et  les  Levres,  a  Faust-like  theme, 
the  conception  of  which  is  unfortunately  far  superior  to  its 
execution. 

The  four  Nuits—De  Mai  et  de  Decembre  (1835),  d'Aout  ,(1836), 
and  d'Octobre  (1837) — reflect  the  bitterness  of  soul  and  dis- 
illusionment which  followed  his  rupture  with  George  Sand, 
and  the  ending  of  those  romantic  dreams  of  ideal  leve  which 
they  had  founded  on  that  relationship.  The  personal  allusions 
with  which  they  abound  make  them  often  obscure,  but  there 
is  no  mistaking  their  delicate  analysis  and  fine  insight  into 
the  human  heart.  They  contain  much  that  is  purely  ad- 
mirable as  lyricism  of  the  passion  and  sufferings  of  love. 

In  the  Confession  d'un  Enfant  du  Siecle — the  story  of  a  young 
man  who  has  exhausted  before  his  prime  all  the  pleasures 
the  world  has  to  offer  and  his  own  power  of  enjoyment,  and, 
young  in  years,  finds  himself  old  at  heart,  without  ambition, 
faith,  or  hope — we  cannot  but  trace  the  picture  of  De  Musset 
himself. 

Of  his  comedies  some  few  are  among  his  very  best  work. 
They  have,  on  the  whole,  comparatively  little  action,  their 
interest  lying  more  in  the  delicate  analysis  of  human  feel- 
ings and  emotions,  while  he  often  shows  himself  a  master 
of  dramatic  dialogue,  and  his  wit  is  lively  and  never-failing. 
Some  of  the  pieces,  remarkable  for  their  intensity  and  graceful 
fantasy,  as,  for  instance,  On  ne  badine  pas  avec  Vamour  and  //  ne 
faut  jurer  de  rien,  still  maintain  their  hold  on  the  stage. 

Alfred  de  Musset  was  before  all  a  great  lyricist,  whose 
source  of  inspiration  was  the  human  heart  with  its  inner 
workings  and  most  subtle  feelings  and  emotions.  All  his 


250  NINETEENTH   CENTURY— FIRST   PERIOD 

work  is  strongly  subjective;  nowhere  do  we  long  forget  the 
personality  of  the  author.  Beginning  life  as  an  enthusiast, 
fired  with  ambition  and  hope,  he  early  underwent  a  sad  dis- 
illusionment, owing  principally  to  his  unhappy  relations  with 
George  Sand,  and  all  his  later  work  is  inspired  by  a  melan- 
choly which  broods  upon  the  darker  problems  of  life,  and 
ends  by  caressing  a  despair  which  sees  in  its  very  regrets  and 
bitter-sweet  remembrances  the  only  thing  worth  having  lived 
for. 

His  style  is  on  the  whole  careless  and  wanting  in  artistic 
finish,  showing  imperfections  and  faults  which  he  had  not  the 
patience  or  inclination  to  avoid,  but  attaining  at  times,  when 
inspired  by  genuine  passion,  a  simple  directness  and  force 
which  make  it  a  perfect  medium  of  expression. 

A  comparison  with  Byron  is  one  which  will  naturally  suggest 
itself  to  the  student  of  comparative  literature. 

In  contrast  to  De  Musset,  detachment  from  self  is  the  key- 
note of  the  poetry  of  Theophile  Gautier  (1811-1872),  who 
began  by  the  study  of  art,  to  become  later  an  artist  in  liter- 
ature. He  was  the  youngest  of  the  Romanticists,  and  the 
most  noisy  in  his  enthusiasm,  making  himself  conspicuous 
for  his  eccentricity  in  manner  and  dress,  although  it  should 
not  be  overlooked  that  at  bottom  he  was  a  conscientious  and 
indefatigable  worker. 

Gautier's  chief  works  comprise :  (a)  his  poetry,  published  in 
1845  under  the  title  of  Podsies  Completes,  and  which  include 
the  Pofaies  (1830),  La  Come'die  de  la  Mori  (1838)  and  Espana; 
also  the  later  collection  Emaux  et  Canutes  (1852);  (i)  his  fiction, 
the  principal  works  being  Mademoiselle  de  Maupin  (1835),  Le 
Roman  de  la  Momie  (1858),  Le  Capitaine  Fracasse  (1863),  and 
a  number  of  short  stories  second  only  to  those  of  Merimee; 

(c)  his  account  of  his  travels,  the  best  of  which  are  Tra  los 
Monies  (his  journey  to  Spain)  and  the  Voyage  en  Russie  (1867); 

(d)  his  critical  works,   including  Les  Grotesques  (1853)  and 
L'Histoire  du  Romantisme  (1874). 

Already,  with  his  first  poems  in  1830,  the  cult  of  form  and 
colour  which  he  brought  over  from  painting  to  the  sister  art 


POETRY  257 

were  apparent,1  and  announced  the  great  colourist  and  artist 
in  style  of  the  Romantic  school.  In  his  greatest  book,  the 
collection  which  he  published  in  1852  under  the  characteristic 
title  of  fimaux  et  Came'es,  this  feature  is  pronounced,  and  we 
find  everything  regarded  from  the  point  of  view  of  the 
painter.  The  centre  of  interest  is  removed  from  the  subjec- 
tive sentimentality  of  the  Romanticists  to  that  of  objective 
beauty,  while  in  the  field  of  ethics  we  have  the  corresponding 
change  from  the  consciously  moral  or  immoral,  to  the  neither 
moral  nor  immoral,  the  neutral,  with  its  cry  of  "  art  for  art ". 
This  theory  and  creed  of  the  all -importance  of  form  in  art 
at  the  expense  both  of  sentiment  and  ideas,  was  the  side  of 
Gautier's  work  which  inspired  those  who  were  later  known  as 
the  Parnassiens. 

That  this  doctrine  was  essentially  false,  as  confounding  the 
relative  spheres  of  two  complementary  but  not  interchange- 
able arts,  is  beyond  dispute,  and  in  this  respect  Gautier  had 
a  harmful  influence  in  lending  the  weight  of  his  example  to 
an  unsound  tendency.  At  the  same  time  he  exerted  a  very 
wholesome  influence  on  literature  in  liberating  Romanticism 
from  what  was  rapidly  tending  to  become  an  over-subtle 
and  morbidly  introspective  sentimentalism.  Of  the  Emaux  et 
Carries  he  says  himself:  "  Ce  litre  exprime  le  dessein  de  trailer 
sous  forme  restreinte  de  petits  sujets,  tantot  sur  plague  d'or  ou  de 
cuivre  avec  les  vives  couleurs  de  I'dmail,  tantot  avec  la  roue  du 
graveur  de  pierres  fines  sur  I 'agate,  la  cornaline  ou  Vonyx  ". 

The  same  qualities  of  style  are  seen  in  his  prose  writings, 
the  same  firmly  chiselled  reproduction  of  the  objects  which 
struck  the  painter's  eye,  everywhere  the  point  of  view  of  the 
man  "pour  qui  le  monde  exttrieur  existe",  to  quote  the  definition 
of  himself.  The  best  of  them,  apart  from  the  travels,  are 
Mademoiselle  de  Maupin,  which,  with  its  defiant  polemical  pre- 
face, marks  the  transition  to  realism  in  fiction:  Le  Capitaine 

1  Cf.  his  own  words : 

"  Laisse-moi  faire,  6  grand  vicillard, 
Changeant  mon  luth  pour  to  palette 
Une  transposition  d'art ". 
(1(643)  B 


258  NINETEENTH   CENTURY — FIRST   PERIOD 

Fracasse,  a  kind  of  romantic  adaptation  of  Scarron's  Roman 
Comique;  Les  Grotesques,  on  the  minor  poets  of  the  reign  of 
Louis  XIII,  in  M'hom,  with  surer  instinct  than  Sainte-Beuve,  he 
recognized  the  ancestors  of  Romanticism;  and  L'Hisloire  du 
Itomantisme,  still  indispensable  for  a  detailed  and  anecdotic 
knowledge  of  that  movement. 

For  good  or  for  bad,  Gautier  has  to  be  reckoned  with  as  a 
very  important  element  in  the  literature  of  the  middle  decade 
of  this  century.  With  him  ends  the  line  of  the  great  masters 
of  the  poetic  movement,  but  a  few  words  might  be  said  of 
the  minor  Romantic  poets. 

Marceline  Desbordes-Valmore  (1786-1859),  one  of  the  greatest  of 
French  women-poets,  whose  verse  is  remarkable  for  its  sincerity  and 
poignancy,  if  occasionally  marred  by  vagueness  and  prolixity. 

Auguste  Brizeux  (1803-1855),  a  graceful  idyllist  who,  in  Marie  (1831) 
and  Les  Bretons  (1845),  has  sung  the  praises  of  Breton  wilds  and  ways. 

Auguste  Barbier  (1805-1882),  inspired  by  the  July  Revolution, 
wrote  a  series  of  nineteen  satires,  published  under  the  title  of  fambes 
(1831).  They  are  somewhat  violent  in  tone,  but  several,  and  especially 
La  Curie,  are  masterpieces  of  spirited  satire. 

His  other  poems,  II  Pianto,  on  the  misfortunes  of  Italy,  and  Lazare, 
a  picture  of  the  misery  among  the  working- classes  in  England,  are  far 
inferior  to  the  lambes. 

Hegesippe  Moreau  (1810-1838),  whose  sad  death  in  a  hospital  at  the 
early  age  of  twenty-eight  has  lent  additional  interest  to  a  collection  of 
his  poetry  published  after  his  death,  under  the  title  of  Le  Myosotis. 
Moreau's  range  is  not  wide,  but  his  verse  is  always  the  result  of  a  true 
passion  felt.  A  few  of  his  best  pieces,  like  the  charming  elegy  La  Voulzie, 
or  the  famous  lines  written  at  Racine's  tomb,  are  unique  of  their  kind  in 
the  French  language. 


CHAPTER  II 

DRAMA 


The  dramatic  work  of  Victor  Hugo  having  been  already 
discussed,  the  name  of  Alexandra  Dumas  pere,  the  second 
dramatist  in  merit  among  the  Romanticists,  naturally  opens 
this  chapter. 


DRAMA  259 

Alexandra  Dumas  was  born  in  1803  at  Villers-Cotterets,  a  little 
Picardy  town,  and  was  the  son  of  a  general  of  the  Revolution,  and  grand- 
son of  a  Creole.  He  received  a  very  scanty  and  irregular  education,  and 
came  to  Paris  at  twenty  to  make  his  fortune.  The  future  novelist  began 
with  verse,  and  then  being  seized  with  a  passion  for  the  theatre,  entered 
upon  his  serious  literary  career  with  the  writing  of  several  dramas,  with 
which  he  achieved  a  fair  success,  though  nothing  like  that  later  obtained 
when  he  had  found  in  the  novel  his  true  sphere.  Henri  III  et  sa  Oour, 
his  first  important  play,  was  produced  at  the  Thtdtre  Franqais  shortly 
before  Hernani.  About  1840  Dumas  went  over  to  the  novel,  and  partly 
alone  and  partly  in  collaboration  with  a  number  of  others,  who  helped 
to  make  up  the  Maison  Dumas  et  Cie,  turned  out  an  incredible  number 
during  the  remaining  thirty  years  of  his  life.  Nor  was  his  literary 
activity  confined  to  novel-writing ;  he  wrote  memoirs,  travels,  and  any 
other  form  of  saleable  composition,  adapted  his  novels  for  the  stage, 
lectured  both  in  France  and  abroad,  and  in  fact  turned  his  facile  pen 
to  any  labour  which  could  raise  the  sums  necessary  to  meet  the  ex- 
penses into  which  he  was  led  by  his  reckless  extravagance.  In  the 
midst  of  these  untiring  labours  he  died  in  Normandy  in  1870. 

His  principal  plays  are:  Henri  III  (1829),  Antony  (1831), 
La  Tour  de  Nesle  (1832),  Mademoiselle  de  Belle-Isle  (1839). 

Though  not  possessing  any  great  power  of  character-drawing, 
and  wanting  in  psychological  insight,  they  are  remarkable  as 
introducing  on  the  stage  the  treatment  of  historical  subjects, 
afterwards  taken  up  with  such  avidity  by  other  Romanticists. 
At  the  same  time  Dumas  possesses  in  a  high  degree  the 
dramatic  instinct;  all  is  action,  and  the  characters  fitly  explain 
themselves  by  their  deeds  and  not  their  words.  He  fully 
understood  the  requirements  and  conventions  of  the  stage, 
and  to  his  power  of  adapting  himself  to  its  conditions  is  to 
be  ascribed  the  success  of  his  plays,  in  spite  of  their  lack  of 
all  the  highest  dramatic  qualities. 

Of  his  novels  we  shall  speak  in  the  next  chapter. 

The  greatest  name  of  the  period  in  comedy  is  that  of 
Augustin  Eugene  Scribe  (1791-1861),  an  author  whose  pro- 
ductivity was  phenomenal. 

Beginning  his  work  as  a  dramatist  when  hardly  out  of  his 
teens,  he  had  at  first  little  success,  but  gradually  came  to  the 
front,  and  for  some  fifty  years  figured  largely  in  the  "  reper- 
toire" of  several  theatres,  beginning  with  the  Gymnase  from 


•  ri  |\|I_,|IJ|>  ^dyr"!*'         Y"    *..  T^*""^i^^^"<t^^^      /  I 

its  opfenmg  iw  1820,*and  being  admitted  some  seven  or  eight 
ears  later  to  the  stage  of  the  TlifMre  Fran$ais.  ^SCUi^Lfi^ 

Among  his  best-known  pieces  are:  Le  Manage  de  JRaison 
(1820),  one  of  the  earlier  pieces  written  for  the  Gymnase; 
JBertrand  et  Raton  (1833),  a  story  of  revolutions  and  intrigues; 
La  Camaraderie  (1837),  a  satire  on  the  coteries  of  the  bourgeoisie; 
and  possibly  best-known  of  all,  Le  Verre  d'Eau  (1840),  the 
historical  setting  of  which  is  the  series  of  intrigues  which  led 
to  the  fall  of  the  Duchess  of  Maryborough. 

Scribe  is  a  remarkable  instance  of  a  writer  who  was  a  play- 
wright before  everything.  His  comedies  have  no  purely  literary 
qualities,  and  their  thought  is  insignificant.  All  the  interest 
is  centred  in  the  intrigue;  he  takes  any  situations  and  any 
characters,  and,  setting  them  in  movement  with  the  greatest 
-skill,  manipulates  them  with  unerring  instinct  for  dramatic 
effect.  Without  genius  or  originality,  he  was  possessed  of 
.  great  shrewdness,  and  exactly  hit  the  tastes  of  the  public  for 
-~T-- which  he  wrote — the  great  well-to-do  middle  class  of  Parisian 
society.  Alone  and  in  collaboration  he  wrote  some  hundreds 
of  plays;  and,  unlike  Dumas,  with  whom  he  may  be  compared 

point  of  fertility  and  productiveness,  not  only  made  but 

kept  a  very  considerable  fortune, 
^r-f  * 

'*'  Among  his  many  collaborators  might  be  mentioned  Ernest  Legouve 

JP  (T784-181I2),  in  conjunction  with  whom  he  wrote  La  Bataille  des  Dames, 
j«  "^    one  of  the  best,  if  not  the  best,  of  all  his  comedies. 

The  only  other  dramatist  of  importance  in  this  first  half  of 
'  the  century  is  Francois  Ponsard  (1814-1867),  who,  after  the 
"*  appearance  of  Lucrece  (1843),  was  hailed  as  the  founder  of  the 
ecole  du  ban  sens,  which,  though  showing  traces  of  romanticism 
in  picturesqueness  and  colour,  as  also  in  versification,  had  much 
of  the  regularity  of  the  old  classical  tragedy.  However,  he 
did  not  keep  to  this  style  which  he  had  himself  originated,  but 
in  Charlotte  Corday  (1850)  wrote  what  was  to  all  intents  a 
romantic  drama,  while  in  1853  he  passed  over  to  social  comedy 
with  L'ffonneur  et  L' Argent,  and  in  his  last  piece,  in  1866,  Le 
Lion  Amoureux,  (produced  another  comedy  of  the  same  kind. 
In  spite  of  the  considerable  reputation  he  enjoyed  in  his  day, 


\t  Ponsard  has  not  left  any  great  work  in  any  one  of  his  different 
styles.  His  plays  are  written  in  verse,  but  contain  no  real 
poetry,  and  their  psychological  interest  is  very  small. 

His  historical  plays,   of  which  the  principal  are  Charlotte 
Corday  and  Le  Lion  Amoureux,  have  an  air  of  actuality  which J\fv  J. 
,~  is  due  to  their  coldness  and  .want  of  imagination.     His  one    v 
^  "'merit  is  that  he  introduced,  by  the  solidarity  of  his  style 
^     the  regularity  of  his  well-turned  couplets,  an  influence  which, 
-  was  in  healthy  contrast  to  the  extravagances  pf  some  of 
Romanticists. 

3, 


^    .     ^TC^Av^twJ- 

AfteV  poetay,  fict'!6hvl1S^llflfi&{Vnost  important  brancnvot^  Q 
Romantic  literature.  Of  the  novels  of  Victor  Hugo  we  have 
already  spoken  in  conjunction  with  the  rest  of  his  work,  but 
it  may  be  again  remarked  in  this  connection  how  important 
they  were  in  directing  the  Romanticists  to  this  form,  while 
the  greatest  of  all,  Notre- Dame  de  Paris,  was  the  first  great 
example  of  the  historical  novel,  which  flourished  in  France 
during  the  early  part  of  this  period,  owing  in  large  measure 
to  the  fame  which  Sir  Walter  Scott  had  since  1814  achieved 
with  his  historical  romances. 

The  most  remarkable  writer  of  novels  of  this  kind  was 
Alexandra  Dumas,  who  turned  from  the  theatre  to  fiction  in 
1840,  and  during  the  next  decade  composed  his  best  stories. 
Among  the  enormous  number  which  he  wrote,  either  with  or 
without  the  help  of  collaborators,  the  most  famous  perhaps 
are:  Le  Comte  de  Monte  Cristo  (1841-1845),  Les  trois  Mousque- 
taires  (1845),  Vingt  Am  Aprh  (1846),  La  Reine  Margot  (1846). 

Dumas'  novels  have  no  great  literary  qualities,  and  little  art 
in  arrangement  and  development  of  plot,  while  they  show  that 
want  of  finish  which  is  only  to  be  expected  from  the  haste 
with  which  they  were  written,  and  the  little  labour  that  was 
bestowed  upon  them.  Nevertheless  they  reveal  a  wonderful 


262  NINETEENTH   CENTURY— FIRST   PERIOD 

wealth  of  imagination,  a  never-failing  faculty  of  invention, 
and  their  unrivalled  narrative -power  carries  the  reader  irre- 
sistibly along  through  the  endless  series  of  interesting  scenes 
and  situations,  which  are  rather  strung  together  than  subordi- 
nated to  any  general  plot. 

The  main  developments  of  the  Romantic  novel  are  often 
divided  into  two  currents — Idealism  and  Realism,  and  although 
the  distinction  might  be  misguiding  if  interpreted  too  literally, 
it  contains  a  great  deal  of  truth,  and  may  be  a  helpful  general- 
ization if  supplemented  by  a  closer  examination  of  the  facts  of 
the  case. 

With  such  qualifications  we  may  describe  George  Sand  as  a 
representative  of  idealism. 

Lucile  Aurore  Dupin,  Baronne  Dudevant,  was  born  at  Paris  in  the  year 
1804.  Her  father  was  a  grandson  of  the  Marechal  de  Saxe,  her  mother 
a  Parisian  bourgeoise,  and  on  her  father's  death  she  lived  principally 
with  her  grandmother  on  her  estate  at  Nohant  in  Berry.  At  eighteen 
she  married  M.  Dudevant,  and  after  living  with  him  nine  years  she 
separated  from  him,  abandoning  her  fortune,  and  went  to  Paris  to  make 
her  living  by  literature.  She  began  by  collaborating  with  Jules  Sandeau 
under  the  pseudonym  of  Jules  Sand,  from  which,  by  the  change  of  Jules 
to  George,  was  derived  her  famous  nom  de  plume.  For  some  twenty 
years  she  lived  in  the  Bohemian  society  of  the  capital,  under  the  influ- 
ence, during  the  first  part  of  the  time,  of  various  distinguished  artists 
and  men  of  letters,  notably  Alfred  de  Musset  and  Chopin ;  during  the 
later  part,  more  especially  of  the  philosophers,  socialists,  and  politicians. 
In  the  years  1833  and  1834  she  made,  in  the  company  of  Alfred  de 
Musset,  the  journey  to  Italy,  which  is  reflected  in  the  work  of  both,  and 
left  so  deep  a  mark  on  his  life. 

In  1848  she  withdrew  from  the  life  of  the  capital  to  her  beloved  Berry, 
where  as  chatelaine  of  Nohant  she  passed  the  rest  of  her  days,  engaged 
with  but  short  intervals  in  steady  and  untiring  literary  toil.  She  died 
in  1876. 

Her  work  may  be  divided  into  four  periods,  and  the  principal 
writings  of  each  are  respectively  the  following: — (a)  Indiana 
(1831),  Valentine  (1832),  Lelm  (1833),  Jacques  (1834),  Elk  et 
Lui  (1858);  (b)  Spiridion  (1839),  Conswlo  (1842-1843),  La  Com- 
tesse  de  Rudolstadt  (1844);  (c)  La  Mare  au  Diable  (1846),  La 
Petite  Fadette  (1849),  Francois  k  Champi  (1850);  (d)  Jean  de  la 


PROSE  263 

Roche  (1860),  Le  Marquis  de  Fillcmer  (1861),  Les  Beau::  Mes- 
sieurs de  Bois  Dor6  (1868). 

The  novels  of  the  first  period  show  largely  the  Semantic 
tendencies  of  the  day,  together  with  a  very  strong  influence  of 
Rousseau,  while  they  get  their  distinctive  character  from  the 
prominence  they  give  to  the  marriage  question,  the  unsatisfied 
yearnings  of  the  femme  incomprise,  and  the  sacredness  of  true 
love,  which  is  superior  to  all  obligations. 

Elle  et  Lui  (1858)  deals  with  the  Musset  episode. 

In  the  second  period  the  influence  of  her  philosophic 
friends,  the  most  important  of  whom  was  Lamennais,  is 
apparent,  and  she  produced  novels  which  were  mainly  rhap- 
sodies on  social  questions,  treating  largely  of  the  relations 
between  the  classes,  and  drawing  wonderfully  idealized  pic- 
tures of  fusion  between  the  different  ranks  effected  by  the 
all-potent  influence  of  love. 

The  best  book  of  this  period,  and  one  of  the  best  she  wrote, 
is  Consuelo  (1842). 

In  the  third  period,  inspired  by  her  beloved  province,  she 
returns  to  scenes  of  rural  simplicity  and  simple  faith,  and 
creates  some  idylls  that  are  pure  masterpieces,  and  in  which, 
though  both  scenes  and  personages  are  largely  idealized,  yet 
the  whole  is  inspired  by  the  highest  degree  of  poetic  truth. 
Many  regard  the  works  of  this  period  as  her  greatest,  and  we 
are  inclined  to  agree  with  them. 

Lastly,  towards  the  close  of  her  life  she  turns  to  story- 
telling pure  and  simple,  and  leaves  Berry  for  other  scenes, 
which  she  uses  as  the  background  for  charming  idylls  of  life 
told  with  the  calm  and  smiling  serenity  of  her  own  placid  old 
age. 

Only  a  small  part  of  George  Sand's  novels  even  have  been 
mentioned,  and  to  them  has  to  be  added  a  considerable  quan- 
tity of  dramatic  work,  in  addition  to  a  voluminous  Histoire 
de  ma  Vie,  Lettres,  and  much  miscellaneous  work. 

George  Sand  is  one  of  the  most  considerable  of  woman 
writers  of  any  age  and  country.  Gifted  with  a  wonderfully 
ready  and  fertile  imagination,  and  a  no  less  marvellous  facility 


264  NINETEENTH   CENTURY — FIRST   PERIOD 

of  composition,  she  seemed  to  produce  her  works  with  little 
or  no  effort.  Nor  did  the  quality  suffer  as  much  as  might 
have  been  expected  from  this  free  and  unlaboured  method,  for 
what  she  gave  to  the  world  in  this  way,  as  the  spontaneous 
emanation  of  her  genius,  has  qualities  both  of  matter  and  style. 
Moreover,  though  she  no  more  makes  an  effort  to  excel  in 
psychological  analysis  than  in  any  other  direction,  her  insight 
into  human  nature  is  very  considerable,  and  not  to  be  con- 
cealed by  the  halo  of  idealism  which  she  throws  around  her 
characters.  Thus  it  would  be  wrong  to  call  her  an  idealist 
if  using  the  term  implied  the  total  exclusion  of  realism.  The 
work  of  George  Sand  might  best  be  described  as  a  fusion  of 
the  two,  her  conception  and  mental  vision  being  in  the  highest 
degree  true  to  nature,  while  her  optimistic  woman's  nature 
leads  her  to  bestow  on  all  rather  more  of  poetry  and  romance 
than  is  justified  by  the  hard  facts  of  actual  life. 

Among  the  Eealists,  three  men  stand  out  conspicuously. 
We  will  speak  first  of  Stendhal  (1783-1842),  the  originator 
of  the  school,  and  the  first  in  point  of  time. 

Marie  Henri  Beyle,  who  wrote  under  the  name  of  Stendhal, 
was  a  man  who  saw  much  active  life,  trying  his  hand  at  more 
than  one  profession,  and  among  other  things  taking  part  in 
the  Eussian  campaign.  He  lived  for  several  years  in  Italy, 
for  which  country  he  had  a  passionate  preference. 

His  name  depends  upon  two  novels:  Le  Rouge  et  le  Noir 
(1831),  and  La  Chartreuse  de  Parme  (1839). 

The  former  takes  for  its  hero  a  man  of  unscrupulous  ambi- 
tion, Julien  Sorel,  who  in  the  troublous  times  which  followed 
the  Revolution  resolved  by  his  own  energies  and  abilities  to 
carve  for  himself  a  position,  but  whose  career  of  vice  is  cut 
short  on  the  scaffold. 

The  latter  is  almost  entirely  occupied  with  the  painting  of 
Italian  life,  but  is  best  known  for  the  description  of  Waterloo, 
given  in  realistic  fashion  from  the  point  of  view  of  a  conscript 
who  takes  part  in  it.  In  its  cold,  unimpassioned  detail  it  is 
a  model  of  realism,  no  less  by  what  it  omits  than  by  what 
it  tells. 


PROSE  265 

In  both,  Stendhal  shows  his  two  main  characteristics,  the  love 
of  action  and  energy,  and  the  observation  of  the  human  heart, 
which  makes  him  the  first  in  point  of  time  of  the  great  modern 
psychological  novelists.  His  influence  was  very  considerable, 
especially  on  Balzac  and  Merimee,  his  two  immediate  suc- 
cessors in  the  earlier  part  of  the  century. 

Prosper  Merimee  was  born  at  Paris  in  1803,  and  began  by 
studying  law.  Abandoning  this  occupation,  he  held  various 
government  posts,  and  became  finally  Inspector  of  Historical 
Monuments.  Under  Napoleon  III  he  was  made  a  senator, 
and  was  a  great  favourite  both  of  the  emperor  and  of  the 
Empress  Eugenie. 

His  chief  writings  are:  The&tre  de  Clara  Gazul  {1825), 
Chronique  du  Regne  de  Charles  IX  (1829),  and  among  his  short 
stories  La  Ve"nus  d'llle  (1837),  Colomba  (1840),  Tamango,  Car- 
men (1845),  Matteo  Falcone,  L'Enlfoement  de  la  Redoute. 

Beginning  his  literary  career  at  twenty-two  with  some  dra- 
matic pieces  professing  to  be  from  the  Spanish  of  an  imaginary 
Clara  Gazul,  he  followed  in  1830  with  another  mystification 
in  the  form  of  a  collection  of  pretended  Illyrian  folk-songs, 
signed  with  an  anagram  of  the  previous  name,  La  Guzla.  Up 
to  this  time  his  work  had  borne  a  decided  romantic  imprint 
both  in  matter  and  form,  but  he  then  turned  to  the  writing 
of  those  stories  on  which  his  lasting  fame  depends. 

Though  still  in  keeping  with  romantic  traditions  in  their 
predilection  for  strange  and  less  civilized  countries,  and  the 
interest  they  display  in  foreign  languages  and  literatures,  they 
are  in  the  best  sense  of  the  word  realistic  in  their  exact  and 
picturesque  portrayal  of  the  local  setting,  and  in  the  truth  of 
their  artistic,  historical,  and  archaeological  descriptions. 

He  fitly  stands  midway  between  Stendhal  and  Balzac  in  the 
history  of  the  realistic  novel,  having  many  points  in  common 
with  both,  though  he  is  a  greater  artist  than  either.  The 
influence  of  Stendhal  he  himself  acknowledges:  "Les  idees  de 
Stendhal  sur  les  hommes  et  sur  les  choses  out  singulierement  dtteint 
sur  les  miennes ",  he  says,  and  that  influence  is  clearly  to  be 
seen  in  his  preference  for  lands  whose  primitive  force  and 


2C6  NINETEENTH   CENTURY— FIRST  PERIOD 

energy  has  not  been  affected  by  the  influences  of  civilization, 
while  he  resembles  Balzac  in  the  importance  he  attaches  to 
the  painting  of  externals,  and  the  connection  he  establishes 
between  the  mind  and  its  surroundings. 

Most  remarkable  in  his  method  is  the  striking  objectivity 
of  treatment;  he  seeks  to  efface  himself,  concealing  his  own 
personality  behind  his  work,  and  letting  the  latter  speak  for 
itself.  His  style  is  clear  and  polished,  and  even  when  he  is 
recounting  the  horrors  and  mysteries  in  which  he  takes  delight, 
the  tone  never  loses  its  elegance  and  urbanity.  Me'rimee  is, 
in  short,  an  artist,  and  one  whose  reputation  will  gain  much 
more  than  it  will  lose  with  the  progress  of  time. 

Lastly,  we  must  speak  of  the  third  of  these  men,  Honore  de 
Balzac,  the  founder  proper  of  the  modern  social  realistic  novel, 
and  one  of  the  greatest  names  in  French  literature. 

Balzac  was  born  at  Tours  in  1799,  studied  law  for  three  years  at  the 
Sorbonne,  his  father  wishing  him  to  become  a  notary.  In  1819  he  left 
his  native  town  to  try  his  fortune  in  Paris,  where  his  life  for  the  first 
ten  years  was  a  long  struggle  in  which  he  contracted  debts  which 
hampered  him  for  the  rest  of  his  life.  He  wrote  during  this  period 
several  novels  of  little  worth,  and  it  was  not  till  the  publication  of  Les 
Chouans  (1829)  that  he  achieved  his  first  real  success.  Soon  after 
appeared  La  Peau  de  Chagrin,  the  first  of  his  great  works,  and  his 
reputation  was  established.  From  that  time  till  his  death  he  brought 
out  a  continuous  stream  of  novels,  working  with  phenomenal  industry 
and  endurance,  his  hours  varying,  according  to  his  own  account,  from 
fifteen  to  eighteen  a  day,  turning  night  into  day,  and  often  shutting 
himself  up  from  the  world  for  weeks  at  a  time.  This  unnatural  labour, 
to  which  he  devoted  himself  partly  under  the  pressure  of  his  load  of 
debts,  and  partly  from  the  necessity  which  he  felt  of  realizing  his  artistic 
conceptions,  exhausted  his  forces,  and  he  died  in  1850  at  the  early  age 
of  fifty-one. 

In  1836,  when  he  had  already  written  several  of  his  best 
works,  Balzac  conceived  the  idea  of  a  gigantic  gallery  of 
novels  representing  contemporary  life,  into  the  framework  of 
which  he  fitted  many  of  those  he  had  already  written,  and 
which  was  to  be  completed  by  a  great  number  of  others  of 
which  some  were  actually  written  and  some  never  got  beyond 
their  conception  in  the  author's  brain.  To  this  unique  work 


PROSE  267 

he  gave  the  title  of  La  Comfclie  Humaine,  and  divided  it  into 
six  groups: — (a)  Scenes  de  la  Fie  Privfe,  comprising  among 
others  La  Femme  de  Trente  Ans  (1832),  Le  Colonel  Chabert,  Le 
Pere  Goriot  (1835);  (b)  Scenes  de  la  Vie  de  Province:  Le  Lys  dans 
la  Vallee  (1835),  Eugtnie  Grandet  (1833),  Le  Curt,  de  Tours, 
Illusions  Per  dues  (1837);  (c)  Scenes  de  la  Vie  Parisienne:  Char 
Birotteau  (1837),  La  Cousine  Bette  (1847);  (d)  Scenes  de  la 
Vie  Politique:  Une  Ttnebreuse  Affaire  (1841);  (e)  Scenes  de  la 
Vie  Militaire:  Les  Chouans  (1827-1829);  (/)  Scenes  de  la  Vie  de 
Campagne:  Les  Paysans  (1845),  Le  Medecin  de  Campagne  (1833), 
Le  Curede  Village  (1839).  He  wrote  also  Philosophical  studies: 
La,  Recherche  de  VAbsolu  (1834);  and  Analytical  studies. 

This  great  creation  in  which  society  is  approached  from  so 
many  sides,  from  the  point  of  view  of  so  many  ranks,  pro- 
fessions, and  situations,  in  which  the  characters  are  connected 
and  their  relations  with  one  another  and  with  the  rest  of  their 
imaginary  society  fully  and  minutely  portrayed,  places  Balzac 
by  the  side  of  the  great  creative  geniuses,  the  Shakespeares 
and  Molieres  who  have  produced  from  their  own  consciousness 
a  world  as  actual  and  living  as  the  world  which  they  reflect. 

The  society  that  Balzac  places  before  us  is  essentially  that 
of  the  France  of  Louis  Philippe,  and  more  particularly  the 
bourgeoisie,  with  its  ignoble  striving  after  wealth  and  position, 
its  intrigues  and  egoisms,  its  trivialities  and  low  ideals. 
Doubtless  that  society  was  not  one  of  the  most  encouraging 
to  the  student  of  sociology,  yet  we  have  every  reason  to 
believe  that  it  was  not  as  bad  as  Balzac  paints  it,  for  as  he 
himself  declared,  he  occupied  himself  by  preference  with  the 
mean  and  sordid  in  human  life  and  character.  "Les  etres 
imlgaires  rriinttressent  plus  qu'ils  ne  wus  inUressent,  he  said  to 
George  Sand.  "Je  les  grandis,  je  les  idealise,  en  sens  inverse,  dans 
leur  laideur  ou  dans  leur  betise. 

Accordingly  he  is  best  in  his  pictures  of  doubtful  and  more 
than  doubtful  characters.  He  cannot  paint  a  gentleman,  an 
honest  man,  or  a  virtuous  woman,  but  he  is  excellent  in  his 
villains  and  victims  of  human  folly  and  vice.  His  favourite 
method  is  to  take  one  character  who  has  become,  through 


268  NINETEENTH   CENTURY — FIRST   PERIOD 

addiction  to  some  besetting  sin,  a  human  monster,  and  trace 
in  all  its  ramifications  the  ravages  effected  in  him  and  in  the 
society  that  is  dependent  upon  him  or  exposed  to  his  influ- 
ence. His  own  peculiar  types  of  character  he  draws  with  a 
marvellous  realism,  and  with  a  command  of  detail  which  has 
rarely  been  equalled.  Externals  and  material  surroundings 
form  a  characteristic  part  of  his  process,  and  are  regarded  as 
an  index  to  character  and  an  important  element  in  its  forma- 
tion. Yet  he  is  no  thinker — much  less  so  than  Victor  Hugo — 
and  not  infrequently  his  endless  descriptions,  as  well  as  his 
pseudo-philosophical  dissertations,  tend  to  make  his  novels 
wearisome.  Although  Balzac  showed  a  marked  preference  for 
the  baser  side  of  nature,  the  fact  must  not  be  lost  sight  of  that 
he  is  in  part  a  Romanticist,  a  Realist  haunted  by  phantasms 
of  romance,  as  is  well  illustrated  by  such  of  his  works  as  Sdra- 
phita  and  Le  Lys  dans  la  Vallfe. 

Both  in  its  qualities  and  failings  his  influence  is  everywhere 
traceable  in  the  fiction  of  the  latter  half  of  the  century. 

Among  the  numerous  lesser  novelists  and  writers  of  stories 
the  most  noticeable  in  this  period  are: 

Charles  Nodier  (1780-1844),  whose  literary  importance  lies  in  the 
fact  that  he  was  the  centre  around  which,  in  the  library  of  the  Arsenal, 
gathered  the  advanced  guard  of  the  young  Romantic  revolters — De 
Vigny,  Sainte-Beuve,  6mile  Deschamps  (1791-1871),  who  translated 
from  Shakespeare,  his  brother  Antoine  Deschamps  (1800-1869),  who 
turned  Dante  into  French — in  fact,  all  those  who  are  known  as  the  first 
Ctnade.  Nodier's  output  was  considerable,  but  the  only  portion  of  it 
likely  to  live  are  a  few  admirable  short  stories,  such  as  Trilby  (1822), 
and  perhaps  Le  Peintre  de  Salzbourg  (1803),  in  the  German  sentimental 
manner. 

Eugene  Sue  (1804-1857),  the  author  of  a  number  of  novels,  most  of 
which  teem  with  absurdities  and  various  objectionable  qualities,  but  of 
which  at  any  rate  two,  the  Mysteres  de  Paris  (1842)  and  the  Juif 
,Errant  (1845),  achieved  great  success. 

Emile  Souvestre  (1806-1854)  to  whom  we  owe  some  charming  stories 
of  Breton  life,  the  best  known  being  Les  Dernier s  Bretons,  Les  Derniers 
Paysans,  and  Foyer  Breton.  Another  book  of  his  which  has  gained  a 
certain  reputation  is  Le  Philosophe  sous  les  Toils,  the  reflections  of  a 
young  man  on  the  every-day  events  of  his  life,  mingled  with  some 


PROSE  269 

unobtrusive  moralizing  thereupon,  the  whole  written  in  an  easy  and 
graceful  style  that  makes  it  not  without  interest. 

Alphonse  Karr  (1808-1890),  who  made  his  reputation  with  Sous  les 
TUleuls  (1832),  followed  by  a  long  series  of  novels,  the  best  being 
Genevieve  (1838),  though  none  equalled  either  the  merit  or  popularity 
of  his  first  work.  His  characteristics  are  a  strong  feeling  for  the  pic- 
turesque, blended  with  a  wit  and  irony  which  possess  a  distinct  attrac- 
tion of  their  own. 

Henri  Murger  (1822-1861),  whose  reputation  rests  on  the  Scenes  de 
la  Vie  de  Boheme  (1845),  humorous  descriptions  of  the  life  of  the  needy 
student  population  of  Parisian  Bohemia,  in  which  the  fantastic  and  the 
real  are  Delightfully  blended.  He  wrote -also  many  other  novels  dealing 
with  the  vagabond  life  of  the  Quartier  Latin,  the  romance  of  which  he 
did  more  than  anyone  else  to  create. 

Not  least  important  of  the  literary  branches  of  the  period  is 
history,  which  can  point  to  half  a  dozen  famous  names,  and 
such  a  revolution  of  methods  that  the  modern  science  only 
dates  from  its  first  years. 

The  father  of  modern  French  history  is  Augustin  Thierry, 
who,  with  the  Lettres  sur  VHistoire  de  France,  gave  the  first 
indication  of  the  new  movement. 

Born  at  Blois  in  1795,  he  became  in  1815  the  secretary  of  Saint- 
Simon;  but  from  1817  turned  to  political  writing.  In  1821  he  pub- 
lished in  the  Courrier  Franfais  the  first  ten  Lettres  sur  VHistoire  de 
France,  to  which  fifteen  more  were  afterwards  added.  Although  defec- 
tive sight,  aggravated  by  excessive  application,  ended  in  blindness,  he 
continued  his  labours  and  researches  with  a  fine  courage  and  perseverance, 
till  his  death  in  1856. 

His  works  comprise,  in  addition  to  the  already  mentioned 
Lettres,  the  Histoire  de  la  Conquete  de  VAngleterre  par  les  Nw- 
mands  (1825),  Dix  Ans  tf  Etudes  Eistorigues  (1835),  and  the 
Redts  des  Temps  Merovingiens  (1840). 

In  all  his  works  Thierry  seeks  by  the  aid  of  a  vivid  imagi- 
nation to  make  history  live  again  before  our  eyes  in  a  series  of 
pictures  that  shall  be  full  of  animation  and  colour,  and  yet 
possess  the  fidelity  and  truth  which  can  only  be  founded  on 
patient  and  careful  investigation.  His  aims  can  best  be  given 
in  his  own  words:  "J'avais  V ambition  de  faire  de  I'art  en  meme 


270  NINETEENTH   CENTURY — FIRST   PERIOD 

temps  que  de  la  science,  de  faire  du  drame  &  I'aide  de  mate'riaux 
fournis  par  une  Erudition  sincere  el  scrupuleuse  ". 

The  main  influences  by  which  he  was  inspired  were  the 
writings  of  Chateaubriand,  whose  Martyrs  gave  him  the  first 
impulse  in  the  direction  of  his  future  career,  and  Walter  Scott, 
for  whom  he  entertained  a  no  less  ardent  admiration. 

His  best  works  are  the  Conquete  de  VAngleterre  and  the 
R<!dts  des  Temps  Merovingiens,  in  the  latter  of  which  especially 
he  brings  before  us,  with  striking  force  and  picturesqueness, 
the  sturdy  semi-barbarous  princes,  warriors,  and  people  of 
those  turbulent  times.  It  is  the  masterpiece  of  the  new  pic- 
turesque romantic  school  of  history  initiated  by  its  author. 

As  Thierry  was  the  leader  of  the  Descriptive  school, 
Francois  Guizot  is  the  undoubted  chief  of  the  Philosophic 
group  of  historians. 

Guizot  was  born  at  Nimes,  in  1787,  of  a  Protestant  family,  and  after 
being  brought  up  at  Geneva,  came  to  Paris,  studied  law,  and  became  a 
professor  at  the  Sorbonne,  forming  in  the  last  years  of  the  Restoration,  with 
Villemain  and  Cousin,  a  kind  of  intellectual  triumvirate.  His  lectures, 
which  were  mainly  on  French  institutions,  were  suspended  in  1822,  and 
were  not  resumed  till  1828.  Under  Louis  Philippe  he  was  twice  Minister 
of  Public  Instruction ;  in  1840  he  was  sent  as  French  Ambassador  to 
London,  but  after  the  fall  of  Thiers,  returned  and  became  President  of 
the  Council  and  chief  adviser  of  Louis.  By  his  steady  opposition  to  all 
reasonable  reforms  he  was  largely  instrumental  in  bringing  about  the 
Revolution  of  1848.  After  that  event  he  was  for  a  short  time  in  exile  in 
England,  but  returned  to  France,  and  after  1851  devoted  himself  entirely 
to  his  literary  labours.  He  died  in  1874.  > 

His  four  principal  works  are  the  Histoire  de  la  Revolution 
VAngleterre  (1826),  Histoire  G6nemle  de  la,  Civilisation  en  Europe 
(1828),  Histoire  Ge'ne'rale  de  la  Civilisation  en  France  (1830), 
Mtmoires  pour  servir  ft  V Histoire  de  mon  Temps  (1858-1867). 

Guizot's  leading  ideas  are  the  superiority  of  constitutional 
government  to  even  a  legitimate  and  enlightened  monarchy, 
and  the  necessity  of  religious  faith,  not  only  from  the  moral, 
but  also  from  the  social  point  of  view.  His  method  sacrifices 
the  narrative  and  picturesque  interest  to  a  cold  unimaginative 
exposition  of  facts.  His  works  are  models  of  order,  system, 


PROSE  271 

and  clearness,  but  not  great  examples  of  literary  composition 
and  style,  and  rather  interesting  to  the  student  of  history  than 
to  the  general  reader.  His  merits  are  those  of  the  thinker  and 
logician;  events  and  characters  are  of  secondary  importance, 
while  the  main  interest  everywhere  centres  in  the  ideas  of 
which  outward  events  and  circumstances  are,  as  it  were,  the 
symbol  and  expression. 

Realism  in  history  is  represented  by  Louis  Adolphe  Thiers 
(1797-1877),  who  began  by  the  study  of  law,  but  afterwards 
came  to  Paris  and  busied  himself  with  literature  and  jour- 
nalism. In  1823  appeared  the  first  two  volumes  of  his  Histoire 
de  la  Revolution  Franqaise.  Both  under  Louis  Philippe  and 
Napoleon  III  he  played  an  important  political  role,  while  from 
1871  to  1873  he  was  President  of  the  Republic. 

He  wrote  two  great  historical  works,  the  already  mentioned 
Histoire  de  la  Revolution  Franqaise  (1823-1827),  and  the  Histoire 
du  Consulat  et  de  I'Empire  (1843-1863). 

Thiers  is  neither  a  painter  like  Thierry  nor  a  philosopher 
like  Guizot,  but  before  all  a  patient  and  reliable  dealer  in  facts. 
Of  his  own  untiring  investigation  he  speaks  himself :  "  Je  n'ai 
aucun  repos  que  je  n'aie  ddcouvert  la  preuve  du  fait  .  .  .  et  je  ne 
m'arrete  que  lorsque  je  Tai  trouve'e  ou  que  j'ai  acguis  la  certitude 
qu'elle  n'existe  pas  ". 

He  was  gifted  with  an  excellent  fund  of  sense  and  a  mar- 
vellous facility  of  comprehension,  coupled  with  a  rare  faculty 
for  expounding  and  elucidating.  Even  the  most  difficult 
subjects  give  the  impression  of  simplicity  and  ease  under  his 
treatment.  He  has  been  accused  of  cynical  indifference  to- 
wards the  merits  of  the  events  or  actions  which  he  relates,  but 
this  is  due  rather  to  his  desire  to  give  a  faithful  reproduction 
of  reality,  without  philosophical  deductions  or  bias  of  any  kind, 
than  to  any  want  of  moral  sympathy.  Through  the  promi- 
nence he  gave  to  his  admiration  for  Napoleon,  he  was  one  of 
those  who  helped  to  build  up  the  Napoleonic  legend,  and 
indirectly  collaborated  in  bringing  about  the  Second  Empire. 

A  friend  and  intimate  of  Thiers  was  Francois  Auguste 
Mignet  (1796-1884),  whose  fame  rests  on  the  Histoire  de  la 


272  NINETEENTH   CENTURY — FIRST   PERIOD 

Involution  Fran$aise,  which  appeared  in  1824.  He  represents 
the  Revolution  as  the  natural  outgrowth  of  the  different  con- 
ditions of  time,  place,  climate,  and  national  temperament. 
This  endeavour  to  explain  all  effects  as  the  necessary  and  in- 
evitable result  of  their  respective  causes  has  led  to  the  charge 
of  fatalism  being  laid  against  him — a  charge  which  is  partly 
justified,  though  he  by  no  means  fails  to  recognize  the  power 
of  human  will  and  energy  to  modify  the  course  of  events.  At 
the  same  time,  he  ascribes  to  them  a  limited  role,  or,  as  he 
himself  says:  "  Ce  sont  moins  les  hommes  gui  ont  men6  les  choses, 
qite  les  choses  qui  ont  mend  les  hommes  ". 

His  French  Revolution  is  a  concise  but  admirably  clear  account 
of  the  great  events  of  which  it  treats,  giving  a  vivid  picture, 
and  at  the  same  time  sober  and  philosophic  deductions,  the 
value  of  the  whole  being  heightened  by  the  excellence  of  the 
form.  His  style  is  a  model  of  conciseness  and  concentration 
without  obscurity. 

The  greatest  of  all  French  historians,  and  unrivalled  as  an 
evocator  of  the  past,  is  Jules  Michelet. 

Michelet  (1798-1874)  was  born  in  Paris,  the  son  of  a  printer,  and  was 
brought  up  amid  scenes  of  poverty  and  privation.  In  1833  he  became 
assistant  professor  of  history  under  Guizot  at  the  Sorbonne ;  in  1837 
professor  at  the  College  de  France.  Refusing  to  swear  allegiance  to 
Napoleon,  he  was  deprived  of  his  chair  in  1851,  and  henceforward 
devoted  himself  entirely  to  his  literary  labours.  During  the  last  twenty 
years  of  his  life  he  did  not  confine  himself  to  history,  but  wrote  many 
works  in  which  philosophy,  the  love  of  nature,  and  poetry  are  delight- 
fully blended. 

His  principal  historical  works  are  the  great  Histoire  de 
France,  begun  in  1833,  in  ten  years  brought  up  to  the  Middle 
Ages,  and  continued  later,  after  the  appearance  of  the  Histoire 
de  la  Revolution  (1847-1853),  and  the  Des  Jdsuites  (1843), 
written  in  collaboration  with  Quinet.  Of  his  other  works, 
among  the  best  known  are:  Le  Pretre,  la  Femme,  et  la  Famille 
(1845),  L'Oiseau  (1856),  L'Insecte  (1857),  La  Bible  de  VHumanite 
(1864),  La  Montagne  (1868). 

Of  his  historical  work  the  best  is  the  part  of  his  Histoire  de 
France  which  deals  with  the  Middle  Ages,  in  which  his  gift 


PROSE  273 

of  imagination  and  picturesque  and  vivid  description  have  full 
play,  while  he  is  not  led  astray  by  the  party  feelings  and  pre- 
judices which  make  him  so  partial  in  his  treatment  of  periods 
nearer  to  his  own  day. 

The  Histoire  de  la  Revolution,  in  spite  of  its  brilliant  pictures 
and  literary  merits,  has  little  value  as  history.  The  writer  is 
too  much  influenced  by  his  passionate  democratic  sympathies 
to  give  a  cool  and  impartial  account  of  the  period  of  which  he 
treats.  The  Jtsuites  shows  the  same  failing  from  the  historical 
point  of  view,  being  written  in  a  pronounced  party  spirit — 
that  of  hostility  to  Jesuitical  tendencies. 

Michelet's  great  merit  as  a  historian  lies  in  his  picturesque 
revival  of  the  past,  in  which  he  resembles  Augustin  Thierry, 
but  far  surpasses  him  in  imaginative  power,  brilliance,  and 
colour.  In  his  later  works,  when  he  turns  from  history  to  the 
innate  lyricism  and  poetry  which  had  always  been  his  passion, 
his  faults  of  partisanship  disappear,  and  his  gifts  of  imagi- 
nation and  style  get  their  full  value.  For  glow  and  colour  of 
form  he  is  second  only  to  Victor  Hugo  in  the  century,  and  the 
best  of  his  wonderful  prose  poetry  has  permanent  qualities 
that  will  only  gain  in  reputation  when  time  has  allowed  them 
to  be  placed  at  the  right  perspective. 

Of  the  disciples  of  Guizot  in  the  historical  field  the  most 
conspicuous  is,  without  contention,  Alexis  de  Tocqueville 
(1805-1859),  the  author  of  two  historical  works  which 
achieved  a  merited  reputation — the  Ddmocratie  en  Amdrique 
(1835)  and  L'Ancien  Regime  et  la  Revolution  (1850). 

Both  are  excellent  as  philosophic  history,  and  show  great 
impartiality  and  freedom  from  prejudice  and  prepossession. 
De  Tocqueville  is  a  deep,  original,  and  logical  thinker,  and 
performed  a  real  service  by  his  cool  and  unimpassioned  ex- 
amination of  democracy. 

With  the  growth  of  the  new  spirit  in  literature  went  hand 
in  hand,  as  the  necessary  counterpart,  a  new  spirit  of  criti- 
cism, which  found  complete  expression  in  Charles  Augustin 
Sainte-Beuve  (1804-1869),  the  great  critic  of  the  Romantic 
school. 

(1(643)  9 


274  NINETEENTH   CEJJT0RT — FIRST   PERIOD 

Born  at  Boulogne-sur-Mer,  he  began  life  by  the  study  of 
medicine,  but,  renouncing  that  profession,  made  his  literary 
appearance  by  articles  in  the  Globe  on  Victor  Hugo,  and 
regularly  joined  the  Romanticists,  becoming  one  of  the  inner 
Cdnacle. 

Sainte-Beuve's  works  comprise — (a)  his  poems,  Joseph  De- 
lorme  (1829),  the  Consolations  (1830),  and  the  Pensees  d'Aotit 
(1837);  (b)  one  novel,  VolupU  (1834);  and  (c)  his  critical 
works,  of  which  the  most  important  are  the  Tableau  de  la 
Po&ie  Francaise  an  XVIe  Siecle  (1828),  the  Portraits  Littiraires 
(1829),  the  Causeries  du  Lundi,  begun  in  the  Constitutionnel 
(1850),  and  continued  as  Nouveaux  Lundis  in  the  Moniteur,  and 
his  great  work  L'Histoire  de  Port-Royal  (1840-1860). 

Apart  from  the  intrinsic  merit  of  his  verse,  which  is  not 
great,  his  real  importance  as  a  poet  lies  in  the  fact  that  he 
was  the  first  to  teach  the  Romanticists  the  value  and  impor- 
tance of  form,  and  especially  of  rime,  in  French  poetry: 

"  Rime,  qui  donnes  leurs  sons 

Aux  chansons; 
Jtime,  I'unique  harmonic 
Du  vers,  qui  sans  tes  accents 

Fremissants, 
Serait  muet  au  gtnie,"  &c. 

ft  was  Sainte-Beuve,  too,  in  the  Pensfas  d'Aotit,  who  first 
struck  the  popular  note  afterwards  carried  to  such  perfection 
by  Manuel  and  Coppee. 

Nevertheless  his  fame  will  always  rest  on  his  achievements 
as  a  critic,  for  here  he  was  a  reformer  and  an  innovator,  and 
opened  up  a  new  era  in  the  science  of  criticism.  Instead  of 
estimating  all  literary  productions  according  to  certain  pre- 
conceived standards,  he  showed  that  they  should  be  judged 
on  their  own  merits,  and  that  those  merits  depend  not  on  their 
resemblance  to  some  famous  previous  example  of  their  own 
literary  kind,  but  on  the  value  of  the  ideas  expressed,  and  the 
way  in  which  form  and  expression  are  adapted  to  the  render- 
ing of  those  ideas.  In  order  to  fully  appreciate  the  concep- 
tion from  which  the  work  has  arisen,  he  proceeds  from  the 


PROSE  275 

work  to  the  man,  tries  to  get  insight  into  his  personality  and 
the  different  influences  to  which  he  has  been  subjected,  and 
thus  as  it  were  to  trace  back  the  work  under  consideration 
through  every  process  of  its  genesis.  The  purely  human 
plays  a  very  great  part  in  his  system,  and  his  delicate  and 
subtle  appreciation  of  character,  and  wide,  almost  universal, 
sympathies,  give  a  breadth  and  stability  to  his  generaliza- 
tions which  make  them  of  the  very  highest  worth. 

The  gap  between  the  old  school  and  Sainte-Beuve's  system 
had  been  partly  bridged  by  Abel  Francois  Villemain  (1790- 
1870),  professor  of  rhetoric  at  the  Sorbonne,  afterwards 
Ministre  de  1'Instruction  Publique  under  Louis  Philippe. 
His  best-known  work  is  the  Tableau  de  la  Literature  Fran$aise 
au  XVIII*  siecle  (1828). 

Basing  Ms  literary  judgments  on  a  knowledge  both  of 
ancient  and  modern  languages  and  literatures,  he  wrote  much 
comparative  criticism  that  was  both  valuable  and  interesting, 
while  his  main  importance  lies  in  the  fact  that,  by  identifying 
literature  with  history,  he  represents  the  first  step  from  that 
criticism  which  judged  merely  from  a  comparison  of  previous 
recognized  models  to  the  modern  scientific  school. 

Edgar  Quinet  (1803-1875),  Michelet's  collaborator  in  his  attack  on 
the  Jesuits,  and  like  him  a  violent  anti-clerical  though  imbued  with 
deep  religious  feeling,  tried  his  hand  at  many  subjects,  but  was  a  com- 
plete master  of  none.  Of  his  early  works  the  most  remarkable  is 
Ahasverus  (1833),  a  kind  of  wildly  romantic  spiritual  imitation  of  the 
ancient  mysteries,  in  which  the  Creation,  the  birth  of  our  Lord,  the  Day 
of  Judgment,  the  Leviathan,  the  stars,  sphinxes,  &c.,  are  represented  in 
a  strange  medley.  This  was  followed  by  Promethe'e  (1838),  and  subse- 
quently by  Merlin  I'Enchanteur  (1860),  a  vast  allegory.  His  prose  is  far 
superior  to  his  poetry;  in  fact  his  studies  on  German  literature  and 
philosophy,  and  on  medieval  French  literature — Idies  sur  la  Philosophic 
de  I'ffistoire  de  Herder,  1827 ;  Les  Epoptes  Franqaises,  1831 ;  Allemagne 
et  Italic,  1839 — can  still  be  read  with  profit,  as  also  his  letters  to 
Michelet,  and  indeed  all  his  various  volumes  of  Correspondance. 

From  a  literary  point  of  view,  undoubtedly  the  most  con- 
siderable of  philosophers  must  be  accounted  Victor  Cousin 
(1792-1867),  born  at  Paris,  the  son  of  a  jeweller.  Educated  at 


276  NINETEENTH   CENTURY— FIRST   PERIOD 

the  Ecole  Normale,  he  became  a  professor  of  Greek  at  the  age  of 
twenty,  but  early  turned  his  attention  to  philosophy.  He  first 
studied  the  Scottish  metaphysicians,  and  afterwards  devoted 
himself  to  the  great  German  philosophers — Kant,  Fichte, 
Schelling,  and  Hegel,  visiting  Germany  in  1817.  His  lectures 
at  the  Swboniie  were  only  rivalled  in  popularity  by  those  of 
Guizot. 

He  was  the  founder  of  philosophical  eclecticism,  which  binds 
itself  unreservedly  to  the  tenets  of  no  particular  school,  but 
chooses  the  best  from  all,  and  compounds  therefrom  a  philo- 
sophy of  its  own. 

His  principal  philosophical  writings  are:  Sur  le  Fondement 
des  Idfas  Absolues,  Cours  d'Histoire  de  la,  Philosophic  Moderne 
(1827),  Du  Frai,  du  Beau,  et  du  Bien  (1836),  and  Histoire  Gtntrale 
de  la  Philosophic.  With  the  last  work  Cousin  was  the  initiator 
of  the  history  of  philosophy.  He  also  wrote  literary  studies 
and  criticism,  principally  on  the  early  part  of  the  17th  century 
in  France,  the  best  known  of  these  being  the  Etudes  sur  Pascal 
(1842-44)  and  La  SocUte"  Fran$aise  au  XFII"  Siecle  d'apres  le 
Grand  Cyrus  (1858). 

By  his  brilliant  lectures  and  wonderful  personal  inflence  he 
did  more  than  anyone  to  revive  the  study  of  philosophy  in 
France. 

Lastly,  pulpit  oratory  found  a  worthy  representative  in 
L'Abbe  Lacordaire  (1802-1861),  who  revived  religious  elo- 
quence, and  introduced  romanticism  into  the  pulpit.  He  was 
a  born  orator,  full  of  fire,  and  gifted  with  a  poetic  utterance 
that  won  and  carried  away  his  auditors.  During  the  years 
1835  and  1836,  and  again  from  1843  to  1851,  he  delivered  the 
series  of  sermons  famous  as  the  Conferences  de  Notre-Dame. 


277 


SECOND   PERIOD  (1*850-1900) 
CHAPTER  I 

POETRY 

All  the  chief  poets  of  the  opening  years  of  this  period 
belonged  to  the  group  known  as  the  Parnassiens.  Among 
them  the  first  to  come  forward  was  Theodore  de  Banville 
(1823-1891),  the  most  direct  and  obvious  disciple  of  the 
founder  of  the  school,  Theophile  Gautier. 

Already  before  1850  he  had  published  two  volumes  of  verse: 
Cariatides  (1842)  and  Stalactites  (1846);  which  were  followed 
by  Odelettes  and  Odes  Funambulesques  (both  in  1857),  Les  Exile's 
(1874),  and  Les  Princesses  in  the  same  year.  He  also  composed 
numerous  plays:  Gringoire  (1866),  Socrate  et  sa  Femme  (1886), 
Le  Baiser  (1888) — all  of  no  great  merit. 

The  names  that  De  Banville  gives  to  the  majority  of  his 
collections  show  plainly  the  characteristics  of  his  verse.  He 
carries  still  further  the  principles  of  Gautier,  reducing  the 
cult  of  art  for  art's  sake  to  that  of  art  for  the  sake  of  artifi- 
ciality. With  Gautier  the  idea  had  after  all  counted  for  some- 
thing, but  with  De  Banville  all  traces  of  it  vanish  before  his 
excessive  worship  of  poetic  form,  arid  more  especially  of  rime,1 
on  which,  according  to  him,  the  value  of  verse  solely  depends. 
"  La  rime  ",  he  informs  us  in  his  curious  Petit  TraiU  de  Potsie 
Fran$aise,  "est  I' unique  harmonie  du  vers  et  elle-  est  tout  le  vers. 
.  .  .  Dans  la  podsie  franchise,  la  rime  est  le  moyen  supreme 
^expression  et  ^imagination  de  la  rime  est  le  maitre-outil.  .  .  . 
C'est  une  loi  absolve,  comme  les  lois  physiques;  tant  que  le  poete 
exprime  vdritablement  sa  pense'e,  il  rime  bien;  des  que  sa  pense'e 
s'embarrasse,  sa  rime  aussi  s'embarrasse,  dement  faible,  trainante 
et  vulgaire"  He  is  even  prepared  to  uphold  the  use  of  the 
cheville,  or  padding  in  the  body  of  the  line,  although  it  should 
be  stated  that  in  nearly  every  case  it  is  impossible  to  detect 
it  in  De  Banville's  verse,  so  great  is  his  metrical  skill, 
1  Cp.  Sainte-Beuve, 


278  NINETEENTH   CENTURY — SECOND   PERIOD 

Such  a  conception  of  verse  explains  his  fondness  for  the 
most  complicated  old  French  poetic  forms,  such  as  the  rondeau, 
the  ballade,  and  the  triolet,  which  afforded  excellent  oppor- 
tunities for  the  special  display  of  his  virtuosity.  From  its 
very  nature  De  Banville's  poetry  excites  surprise  rather  than 
admiration,  and  he  shows  a  true  appreciation  of  his  talent 
when  he  ingenuously  confesses  that  his  ambition  was  to  ally 
the  buffoon  element  to  the  lyric,  by  curious  combinations  of 
rimes  or  peculiar  effects  of  sounds. 

To  sum  up,  we  cannot  do  better  than  to  quote  Jules 
Lemaitre's  witty  definition  of  Theodore  de  Banville:  "Uhpoi'te 
lyrique  hypnotist  par  la  rime,  le  dernier  venu,  le  plus  amust  et  dans 
ses  bons  jours  le  plus  amusant  des  romantiques,  un  clown  en  pofaie 
qui  a  eu  dans  sa  vie  plusieurs  idees,  dont  la  plus  persistante  a  eti 
de  riexprimer  aucune  idee  dans  ses  vers  ". 

In  spite  of  these  restrictions,  some  of  his  trifling  odeleltes, 
or  mocking  vers  de  sodete,  where  verbal  and  metrical  skill  are 
a  help  and  not  a  hindrance,  are  unsurpassed  in  their  kind. 

In  the  Exile's  and  Princesses,  his  later  collections,  De  Banville 
showed  that  he  was  capable  of  writing  stately  descriptions 
in  the  manner  of  the  later  Parnassiens  (cp.  Le  Sanglier,  Andro- 
mede,  N6m,ee,  &c.). 

The  morbid  and  decadent  tendency  found  an  early  and 
intense  expositor  in  Banville's  unfortunate  friend  Charles 
Baudelaire  (1821-1867),  whose  works,  in  addition  to  the 
translations  of  Edgar  Poe  and  of  the  prose  Paradis  Artificiels, 
consist  of  the  poems  published  in  1857  under  the  title  of 
Fleurs  du  Mai.  In  this  collection  he  gives  form  to  his  para- 
doxical theory  that  everything  in  nature  is  evil,  and  all  that 
is  natural  is  hateful,  although  it  should  not  be  overlooked  that 
much  of  his  so-called  satanisme  is  pure  pose;  in  fact,  Baudelaire 
himself  warns  us  that  "a  little  of  the  charlatan  is  always  per- 
missible to  genius  ". 

His  principal  idea  is  that  of  death,  and  death  not  as  a 
symbolic  conception,  but  in  its  sensations  of  decay  and  cor- 
ruption. As  an  artist  he  is  painstaking  and  powerful,  and 
amid  the  fungous  growths  or  noxious  bacilli  of  his  Flowers  oj 


POETRY  279 

Evil,  can  be  found  curiously  idealistic  or  symbolical  poems, 
such  as  Uldtal  du  PoUe,  Correspondances,  and  Harmonie  du  Soir, 
which  for  compactness  and  finish  are  unsurpassed  in  the 
French  language. 

The  greatest  poet  of  the  second  half  of  the  19th  century  is 
probably  Charles  Marie  Leconte  de  Lisle  (1818-1894),  the 
acknowledged  leader  of  the  Parnassiens,  the  second  clearly- 
defined  poetic  school  of  the  century.  He  was  born  in  the 
island  colony  of  Reunion,  and  did  not  remove  permanently  to 
France  till  1847.  After  his  political  hopes  had  been  dashed 
by  the  coup  d'dtat,  he  settled  down  in  Paris  to  a  life  of  literary 
work. 

Apart  from  his  translations  from  Homer,  Hesiod,  and  ^Eschy- 
lus,  Leconte  de  Lisle's  poetry  consists  of  the  Poemes  Antiques 
(1853),  the  Poemes  Barbares  (1859),  and  the  Poemes  Tragiques, 
besides  a  volume  of  posthumous  work,  Derniers  Poemes,  pub- 
lished in  1895. 

Like  all  the  school  of  which  he  was  the  undisputed  chief, 
Leconte  de  Lisle  attaches  very  great  importance  to  the  poetic 
art  itself,  and  his  form  is  wholly  admirable  in  its  flawless 
plasticity,  while  his  language  exhibits  wonderful  precision, 
enhanced  by  a  never-failing  instinct  for  the  telling  word,  and 
enriched  by  fine,  expressive  imagery. 

His  poetry  is  characterized  by  a  well-marked  and  avowed 
disinclination  to  make  a  show  of  his  personal  feelings;  he 
always  protested  against  the  professional  use  of  tears,  the  cry 
of  the  heart,  or  other  such  like  Romantic  devices,  which  to 
him  appeared  a  cheapening  and  corruption  of  art.  In  that 
respect  the  piece  entitled  Les  Montreurs  might  serve  as  an 
epigraph  to  the  whole  of  his  poems : 

"  Td  qu'un  morne  animal,  meurtri,  plein  de  poussiere 
La  chaine  au  cou,  hurlant  au  chaud  soleil  d'tie", 
Promene  qui  voudra  son  cosur  ensanglantd 
Sur  ton  pavi  cynique,  6  plebe  carnassitre  I 

Je  ne  livrerai  pas  ma  vie  d  tes  huees, 

Je  ne  danserai  pas  sur  ton  tn'tcau  banal,"  &c. 

Yet  in  -spite  of  the  lack  of  subjectivity  in  his  work,  he  is  by 


280  NINETEENTH   CENTURY — SECOND   PERIOD 

no  means  the  "  impassible  "  that  is  sometimes  imagined.  He 
has  felt  only  too  deeply,  but  instead  of  indulging  in  the  ever- 
lasting self-contemplation  of  a  Lamartine  or  a  Musset,  he 
thought  it  was  a  nobler  task  for  the  poet  to  give  expression  to 
the  more  general  and  less  ephemeral  sufferings  of  humanity. 
Behind  his  apparent  cold  callousness  the  careful  reader  can 
divine  the  most  disenchanted  sadness,  the  most  profound  aspira- 
tion after  the  nihility  of  the  Buddhistic  nirvana,  that  impass- 
able barrier  beyond  which  the  mind  of  man  can  conceive 
nothing.  Nothing  exists,  all  is  illusion  and  dream;  such,  in 
short,  is  the  basis  of  Leconte  de  Lisle's  philosophy,  as  reflected 
not  only  in  the  poems  imitated  from  Hindoo  subjects  (Vision 
de  Brahma,  Baghavat,  Qunacepa),  but  also  in  La  Ravine  Saint- 
Gilles,  La  Derniere  Vision,  Fiat  Nox,  and  more  especially  in  the 
last  twelve  verses  of  the  Poemes  Tragiques,  where  it  is  so 
eloquently  summed  up : 

"Maya!  Maya  I  torrent  des  mobiles  chimeres, 
Tu  fais  jaittir  du  cceur  de  I'homme  universd 
Les  breves  voluptes  et  les  haines  ameres, 
Le  monde  obscur  des  sens  et  la  splendeur  du  del. 
Mais  qu'est-ce  que  le  cceur  des  hommes  epMmeres, 
0  Maya!  sinon  toi,  le  mirage  immortel? 
Les  siecles  ecoules,  les  minutes  prochaines, 
S'abiment  dans  ton  ombre  en  un  m&me  moment, 
Avec  nos  cris,  nos  plcurs  et  le  sang  de  nos  veincs; 
Eclair,  reve  sinistrc,  eternite  qui  mcnt, 
La  Vie  antique  est  faite  inepuisablement 
Du  tourbillon  sans  Jin  des  apparences  vaines." 

The  philosopher  of  the  Parnassiens  is  Rene  Sully-Prudhomme, 
born  at  Paris  in  1839,  who,  with  his  Stances  et  Poemes  (1865), 
won  a  warm  eulogy  from  Sainte-Beuve. 

Other  volumes  which  followed  were  entitled  Les  Solitudes 
(1869),  Vaines  Tendresses  (1875),  La  Justice  (1878),  and  Le 
Bonheur  (1888). 

He  begins  with  a  fine  and  delicate  analysis  of  the  inner  life, 
the  prevailing  tone  of  which  is  a  deep-seated  but  serene  melan- 
choly. In  La  Justice  and  Le  Bonheur ;  the  two  greatest  French 
philosophic  poems  of  this  century,  he  attempted  a  larger 


POETRT  281 

manner.  The  former,  which  speaks  of  the  search  for  justice, 
finds  that  it  is  only  to  be  attained  in  the  human  conscience; 
the  latter,  that  happiness  can  only  be  reached  through  self- 
renunciation  and  love.  Though  he  attaches  more  importance 
to  the  moral  import  of  his  work  than  some  other  of  the 
Parnassiens,  he  attains  very  great  precision  and  finish  of  form. 

Altogether  his  poetry,  with  its  union  of  subtlety  and  exact- 
ness, delicate  psychology  and  science,  has  very  great  originality 
and  merit. 

Following  in  the  footsteps  of  Sainte-Beuve,  Eugene  Manuel 
(born  in  1823)  has  acquired  great  popularity  for  some  charming 
pictures  of  the  everyday  life  of  the  lower  classes  in  Paris. 
His  insight  and  sympathy  have  enabled  him  to  idealize  in  a 
wonderful  manner  the  details  of  humble  life. 

His  principal  poetic  works  are:  Pages  Intimes  (1866),  Poemes 
Populaires  (1871),  Pendant  la  Guerre  (1872),  and  En  Voyage 
(1882). 

The  same  conditions  of  life  form  the  favourite  theme  of 
Francois  Coppee,  born  in  1842  at  Paris,  the  most  popular 
poet  of  the  day.  With  the  Eeliquaire  (1866)  and  Les  IntimiUs 
(1867)  he  made  himself  a  distinguished  place  among  the 
Parnassiens.  There  have  followed  La  Greve  des  Forgerons 
(1869),  Les  Humbles  (1872),  Promenades  et  Inte'rieurs  (1872), 
Conies  en  Fers  (1881  and  1887). 

He  has  also  written  some  delightful  lyrical  dramas,  full  of 
irony  and  graceful  fancy,  which  are  accounted  by  many  his 
best  work.  Of  these  Le  Passant  (1869)  had  a  very  consider- 
able success,  largely  owing  to  the  acting  of  Madame  Sarah 
Bernhardt,  while  among  a  number  of  other  pieces  the  most 
successful  was  Le  Luthier  de  Crimone  (1876). 

Though  without  any  great  original  power,  Francois  Coppee 
displays  a  delicate  skill  and  a  fund  of  graceful  sentiment  in  the 
treatment  of  those  subjects  which  he  has  made  peculiarly  his 
own.  His  style  has  an  easy  simplicity,  due  to  his  perfect 
mastery  of  all  the  artifices  of  rime  and  rhythm,  although  it 
cannot  be  said  that  he  always  succeeds  in  avoiding  the  prosaic 
and  trivial  in  his  treatment  of  popular  subjects. 


282  NINETEENTH    CENTURY— SECOND   PERIOD 

Among  the  living  adherents  of  Leconte  de  Lisle  none  can 
compare  to  Jose  Maria  de  Heredia,  born  in  Cuba  near  Sant- 
iago, in  the  year  1842,  but  partly  brought  up  and  educated  in 
France.  In  1893  he  published  a  collection  of  sonnets,  Les 
Trophies,  all  of  which  are  unrivalled  for  skilful  workmanship 
and  brilliance  of  imagery. 

De  Heredia's  conception  of  verse  is  derived  from  Leconte 
de  Lisle,  his  master,  whose  conciseness  and  plasticity  of  form 
he  has  carried  to  a  still  higher  degree,  while  at  the  same  time 
making  it,  if  anything,  more  hard  and  metallic  in  outline. 
The  triumph  of  De  Heredia  is  colour,  as  the  fajnous  critic 
M.  Brunetiere  expresses  it,  and  no  verse  has  ever  so  faithfully 
rendered  the  diversity  of  races  or  of  place.  Nothing  could  be 
more  Roman,  for  example,  than  La  Trebbia,  more  Venetian 
than  La  Dogaresse,  more  Japanese  than  Daimio,  or  more  French 
than  the  Belle  Viole,  with  its  delicate  allusion  to  Du  Bellay's 
"sweet  Anjou".  But  his  real  originality  consists  more  espe- 
cially in  having  enlarged  the  horizon  of  the  idea  in  the  con- 
cluding lines  of  the  sonnet,  instead  of  compressing  it.  Take, 
for  instance,  the  last?  lines  of  Antoine  et  CUop&tre,  where  the 
Eoman  imperator,  bending  over  the  Egyptian  queen, 

"  Vit  dans  ses  larges  yeux  etoiles  de  points  d'or 
Toute  une  mer  immense  ou  fuyaient  des  galeres  ". 

Or  again,  the  wide  vistas  opened  up  in  the  last  tercet  of  Les 
Conquer  ants : 

"  Chaque  soir,  espe"rant  dcs  lendemains  ^piques, 
L'azur  phosphorescent  de  la  mer  des  Tropiques 
Enchantait  leur  sommeil  d'un  mirage  dore; 

Ou,  penches  a  I'avant  des  blanches  caravettes, 
Us  regardaicnt  monter  dans  un  del  ignore^ 
Dufond  dc  I' Ocean  dcs  etoiles  nouveUes  ". 

Of  the  new  school  known  as  Decadents  and  Symbolistes 
the  greatest  by  far  is  Paul  Verlaine,  that  second  Villon,  born 
in  1844,  who,  after  a  vagabond  life  spent  between  workhouses, 
cafes,  and  hospitals,  died  in  January,  1896.  He  made  his 


POETRY  283 

literary  d&yvA  already  in  1866  with  a  volume  entitled  Pocmes 
Saturniens,  followed  by  La  Bonne  Chanson  (1870).  Then,  after 
ten  years'  silence,  appeared  Sagesse,  verses  of  sincere  penitence, 
unsurpassed  in  the  French  language,  and  which  have  been 
called  by  a  great  contemporary  critic  "the  first  in  French 
poetry  that  express  truly  the  love  of  God".  Other  collections 
were  Jadis  et  Nagub-e  (1885),  Bonheur  (1889),  Parallclement 
(1890),  the  latter  a  strange  conception,  in  which  the  theme 
is  alternately  sin  and  repentance. 

Verlaine's  position  and  the  character  of  his  poetry  have 
been  frequently  misunderstood,  even  by  those  who  call  them- 
selves his  disciples.  As  a  matter  of  fact,  he  was  a  consider- 
able innovator.  At  bottom  Verlaine's  idea,  stripped  of  its 
antic  garb,  was  to  replace  the  rhetoric  and  well-defined  rimo 
and  rhythm  of  French  poetry,  which  the  Romantic  school, 
in  spite  of  its  innovations,  had  not  succeeded  in  destroying, 
by  the  dreamy  suggestiveness  which  English  or  German 
poetry  so  admirably  conveys.  Although  the  inherent  lim- 
pidity of  the  French  language,  that  makes  of  it  an  incom- 
parable vehicle  for  prose  or  certain  kinds  of  poetry,  renders 
rivalry  with  the  Germanic  languages  almost  impossible  in  this 
respect,  yet  Verlaine  showed  that  partial  success  was  possible, 
and  thus  rendered  a  great  service  to  French  lyric  poetry. 
This  will  be  readily  realized  by  a  comparison  of  the  following 
little  gem  with  Victor  Hugo's  characteristic  verse,  or  still 
better  with  that  of  Leconte  de  Lisle : — 

"  II  pleure  dans  mon  cceur 
Comme  il  pleut  sur  la  vitte, 
Quelle  cst  cette  langeur 
Qui  ptnbtre  mon  cceur? 

0  bruit  doux  de  la  plute 
Par  terre  et  sur  Ics  toils! 
Pour  un  cceur  qui  s'ennuie 
0  le  chant  de  la  pluie  1 

II  pleure  sans  raison 
Dans  ce  cceur  qui  s'tcceure. 
Quoif  nulle  trahison? 
Ce  deuil  cst  sans  raison. 


284  NINETEENTH   CENTURY— SECOND   PERIOD 

C'cst  bien  la  pire  peine 
De  ne  savoir  pourquoi, 
Sans  amour  et  sans  haine 
Mon  cceur  a  tant  de peine" 

In  this  connection  Verlaine's  Art  Podtique,  a  short  poem  of 
thirty-six  lines,  should  be  carefully  read.  We  quote  the  two 
stanzas  which  best  illustrate  our  meaning: — 

u  II  faut  que  tu  n'ailles  point 

Choisir  tes  mots  sans  quelque  mtprise; 
Ricn  de  plus  cher  que  la  chanson  grise 
Oit  I'Inde'cis  au  Precis  se  joint... 

De  la  musique  encore  et  toujours  I 
Que  ton  vers  soit  la  chose  envolee 
Qu'on  sent  quifuit  d'une  dme  en  aJJtte 

Vers  d'autres  deux,  a  d'autres  amours." 

In  versification  his  reforms  were  likewise  aimed  at  the 
directness  and  excessive  cult  of  rime  of  his  predecessors. 
Hence  his  fondness  for  uneven  metres,  such  as  lines  of  nine, 
eleven,  or  thirteen  syllables : 

"  De  la  musique  avant  toute  chose, 
Et  pour  cela  pre"fere  V Impair 
Plus  vague  et  plus  soluble  dans  I'air, 
Sans  rien  qui  pese  ou  qui  pose." — Art  Poe"tique. 

He  also  used  the  cesura  with  great  freedom,  and  restored 
the  hiatus  of  old  French  poetry. 

In  spite  of  the  unevenness  of  his  work,  Verlaine  is  in 
reality  a  great  poet,  in  turn  simple  and  complex,  strong  and 
yet  capable  of  unexpected  depths  of  tenderness.  He  has  left 
some  poems  which  are  masterpieces  of  mystic  fervour  and 
deep  human  sympathy. 

He  is  a  decadent  in  the  super-sensitiveness  and  morbid 
sentimentality  of  a  portion  of  his  verse,  but  it  is  erroneous  to 
imagine  that  his  work  consists  mainly  of  symbolical  oddities. 
That  he  did  write  a  few  such  poems,  thus  giving  the  sym- 
bolical school  the  opportunity  of  claiming  him  for  their  leader, 
is  undeniable,  but  he  wrote  his  best  poetry  when  recreant  to 
the  theories  of  the  Symbolistes,  whose  endeavour  it  was,  while 


POETRY  285 

accepting  Verlaine's  teaching,  to  manifest  physically  by  means 
of  symbols  what  is  spiritually  accessible  only  to  the  few. 
Unfortunately  some  of  the  less  gifted  and  more  eccentric 
innovators,  under  the  pretext  of  symbolical  profundity,  and 
partly  to  mystify  the  public,  have  only  succeeded  in  being  un- 
intelligible, while  others  have  lapsed  into  mere  shallow  ver- 
biage or  indulged  in  metrical  tricks,  thus  earning  for  them- 
selves the  title,  not  of  Symbolists,  but  of  Cymbalists. 

One  of  the  most  obscure  is  Stephane  Mallarme  (1842- 
1898),  the  theorist  of  the  Symbolists,  who  may  be  called  their 
leader  with  much  more  right  than  Verlaine. 

He  first  attracted  attention  by  a  translation  of  Poe's  Raven, 
followed  in  1896  by  Divagations. 

Mallarme  exhibits  in  full  force  all  the  "Decadent"  eccen- 
tricities, talking  a  kind  of  sibylline  jargon,  much  of  which  is 
pure  mystification  or  charlatanry. 

Take,  for  example,  the  passage  in  which  he  exposes  his 
theory  of  art:  " L'idte  qui  seule  importe,  en  la  vie  est  Sparse. 
Aux  ordinaires  et  mille  visions  (pour  elles-memes  a  ne'gliger)  oil 
V Immortelle  se  dissdmine,  le  logique  et  mttditant  poete  les  lignes 
ravisse,  desquelles  il  composer  a  la  vision  seule  digne:  le  rdel  et 
suggestif  symbole  d'oii,  palpitante  pour  le  reve,  en  son  inUgrite"  nue 
se  levera  l'ide"e  premiere  et  derniere  ou  vtrite"  Or  again,  the 
following  famous  sonnet  of  Mallarme,  which  will,  we  feel  sure, 
be  more  eloquent  than  words,  and  afford  an  excellent  example 
of  his  hermetical  language: 

"  Le  vierge,  le  vivace  et  le  bel  aujourd'hui 
Va-t-il  nous  d&hirer  avec  un  coup  d'aile  ivre 
Ce  lac  dur  oublit  que  hante  sous  le  givre 
Le  transparent  glacier  des  vols  qui  n'ont  pas  full 

Un  cygne  d'autrefois  se  souvient  que  c'est  lui, 
Magnifique  mais  qui  sans  espoir  se  delivre 
Pour  ri avoir  pas  chante  la  region  ou  vivre 
Quand  du  sterile  hiver  a  resplendi  I'ennui. 

Tout  son  col  secouera  cette  blanche  agonie 
Par  Vespace  infligee  a  Voiseau  qui  le  nie, 
Mais  non  Vhorreur  du  sol  ou  le  plumage  est  pris. 


286  NINETEENTH  CENTURY— SECOND  PERIOD 

fant6me  quit,  ce  lieu  son  pur  tclat  assiyne, 
11  s'immobilise  au  songe  froid  de  m&pris 
Que  v&t  parmi  Uexil  inutile  le  t'ygne." 

The  most  talented  of  the  group  is  without  doubt  Henri  de 
Regnier,  born  in  1864  at  Honfieur.  To  him  the  symbolical 
conception  of  poetic  themes  is  natural,  and  for  that  reason  he 
is  comparatively  easy  to  follow.  The  dreamy  indefiniteness 
of  his  verse  best  realizes  Verlaine's  ideal,  as  will  be  apparent 
to  the  reader  of  the  sonnet  we  quote  from  Les  Sites  (1°87): 

"  J'avais  marchd  longtemps,  et  dans  la  nuit  venue, 
Je  sentais  defaillir  mes  rives  du  matin; 
Ne  m'as-tu  pas  itiene  vers  le  Palais  lointain 
Dont  I'enchantement  dort  au  fond  de  V  avenue, 

Sous  la  lune  qui  veille  unique  ct  singuliere 
Sur  V assoupissement  des  jardins  d'autrefois 
Oil  se  dressent,  avec  des  clochettes  aux  toits, 
Dans  les  massifs  fleur is,  pagodes  et  volierel 

Les  beaux  oiseaux  pourpres  dormcnt  sur  leurs  perchoirs, 
Les  poissons  d'or  font  ombre  au  fond  des  reservoirs, 
Et  les  jets  d'eau  baisses  expirent  en  murmurcs; 

Ton  pas  est  un  frisson  de  robe  sur  les  mousses, 

Et  tu  m'as  pris  les  mains  entre  tes  deux  mains  douces 

Qui  savent  le  secret  des  secretes  serrures." 

His  other  poems  are:  Episodes  (1888),  Pokmes  Romanesques 
et  Anciens  (1890),  and  ArMhuse  (1895). 

Among  the  lesser  lights  of  the  Symbolical  school  are : — 

Jean  More* as  (born  at  Athens  in  1856),  who  gradually  drifted  from 
symbolism,  and  by  a  curious  evolution,  which  his  Hellenic  origin  explains 
in  part,  became  the  leader  of  the  so-called  icole  romane,  whose  ambition 
it  was  to  rival  the  16th-century  Pleiade: 

"Moi  que  la  noble  Athene  a  rtourri, 
Moi  Vein  des  Nymphes  de  la  Seine, 
Je  ne  suis  pas  un  ignorant  dont  les  Muses  ont  ri. 

L'integre  dement  de  ma  voix 
Suscite  le  harpeur,  honneur  du  Vendomois; 
Et  le  comte  Thibaut  n'eut  pas  de  plainte  plus  douce 

'Que  les  lays  amoureux  qui  naissent  sous  mon  pouce. 
L ' Hymne  et  la  PartMnie,  en  mon  dme  sereine, 
Seront  les  chars  vainqueurs  qui  courent  dans  Varene; 


POETRY  287 

Etjeferai  que  la  Chanson 

Soupire  d'un  tant  courtois  son, 
Et  pareille  au  ramier  quand  la  saison  Ic  prcsse. 

Car  par  le  rite  que  je  sais, 
Sur  de  nouvettes  fleurs,  les  abeittes  de  Grece 

Butineront  un  mid  franqais. " 

These  verses  are  a  poetic  declaration  of  Moreas'  aspirations,  and  a  good 
example  of  his  style,  which,  as  will  be  seen,  is  not  without  a  charm  of 
its  own.  His  chief  works  are :  Les  Syrtes  (1883-1884),  Les  Cantilenes 
(1884-1886),  and  Le  Pelerin  Passionne  (1891), 

Emile  Verhaeren  (born  in  1855),  a  Belgian,  or  rather  a  Fleming, 
whose  best  verses  are  Les  Soirs  (1888)  a"nd  Les  Villages  lUusoires  (1895), 
in  which  he  makes  a  happy  use  of  the  vers  libres.  This  kind  of  verse, 
though  not  unknown  to  classical  writers  (cp.  especially  La  Fontaine  and 
Corneille),  was  first  erected  into  a  system  by  Gustave  Kahn  (born  in 
1859),  one  of  the  most  extravagant  of  the  young  revolutionists.  The 
lines  of  the  vcrs  libre  can  vary  from  one  to  fourteen  or  more  feet,  mixed 
in  any  order,  according  to  the  promptings  of  poetic  inspiration  or  the 
changing  aspects  of  the  subject  in  hand.  Under  a  skilful  hand  curious 
effects  of  "  poetic  orchestration ",  to  talk  the  jargon  of  the  initiated, 
are  sometimes  attained,  but  not  unfrequently  these  vers  polymorphes, 
especially  when  deprived  of  rime,  are  very  little  different  from  harmoni- 
ous prose.  The  following  lines  from  the  poem  entitled  Le  Feu,  in 
Kahn's  Livre  d' Images  (1897),  will  bear  out  our  contention: — 

"Lefeu  trille; 

des  dotgts  longs  montent  conime  des  vrtiles 
subites,  en  I'air  noir; 

le  feu  danse, 

dans  sa  nappe  large  se  creusent  comme  des  anses. 
L'azur  et  Vor  se  poursuircnt  et  se  tcrrasscnt 
dans  une  course  vive. 

Le  feu  rit 

<£un  large  gre"sillement  dans  la  poutre  qu'U  ronge 
longtemps,  puis  triomphe  d'un  dan. 

Lefeu  rougeoie, 

fete  des  feux  de  joie  sur  I'amas  blane 
de  neige  des  plaisirs  de  songe. 
Le  feu  brille,  le  feu  crie 

parmi  des  debris. 
(Test  un  collier  d'orjete"  dans  I'air  noir." 

Francis  Viel^-Griffin  (born  in  1864),  a  gallicized  native  of  the  United 
States,  passes  as  one  of  the  most  skilful  of  the  younger  poets  in  handling 


288  NINETEENTH   CENTURY— SECOND   PERIOD 

the  vers  librc.     Of  his  verse  the  best-known,  perhaps,  are  Les  Cyynes 
(1887),  Joies  (1889),  and  La  Chevauchee  d'Yeldis. 

Maurice  Maeterlinck  (born  in  1862),  the  Belgian  dramatist,  repre- 
sents, as  a  lyric  poet,  the  most  eccentric  and  absurd  side  of  symbolism 
in  Serres  Chaudes  (1889),  Le  Trtior  da  Humbles,  and  Douze  Cliansons 
(1896). 

His  first  collection  of  poems  one  critic  satirically  describes  as  "  a  volume 
of  verse  that  should  be  found  on  the  shelves  of  every  mental  specialist "; 
and  we  own  that  he  is  right.  In  Maeterlinck's  poetical  productions 
we  get  all  the  sham  jewels  of  decadence  and  symbolism  strung  together, 
while  the  absence  of  all  ordinary  meaning — that  perfection  of  art  in  the 
eyes  of  the  school — is  carried  to  a  point  that  no  rival  can  hope  to  surpass. 

Finally,  a  few  poets  who  do  not  belong  to  any  peculiar 
school  deserve  passing  recognition. 

Jean  Labor  (born  in  1840),  whose  real  name  is  Cazalis,  continues  the 
philosophy  of  Leconte  de  Lisle  in  his  Buddhistic  poetry  (L' 'Illusion,  1888, 
and  enlarged  1893),  but  differs  from  him  in  that  his  verse  is  more  truly 
lyrical. 

Maurice  Bollinat  (born  in  1846)  commenced  by  composing  poems 
under  the  influence  of  George  Sand's  rustic  novels  (Dans  les  Brandes 
1877),  but  afterwards  fell  under  the  spell  of  the  morbid  Baudelaire 
(Les  Ntvroses,  1883),  though  his  last  collection,  La  Nature  (1892),  tes- 
tifies to  a  serener  frame  of  mind. 

Jean  Bichepin,  born  in  1849  in  Algeria,  had  experiences 
during  his  youth  of  the  realities  of  life  as  a  franc-tireur  and  as 
a  sailor,  which  are  reflected  in  his  early  poems. 

He  began  by  an  attempt  to  introduce  the  baser  side  of 
Naturalism  into  poetry,  in  his  Chansons  des  Gueux  (1876),  and 
in  Les  Blasphemes  (1884).  Abandoning  this,  he  wrote  descrip- 
tions of  sailor  life  and  remarkable  seascapes  in  La  Mer  (1886), 
which  display  to  the  full  his  wonderful  verbal  invention  and 
metrical  skill,  though  not  always  free  from  eccentricities.  His 
later  poems,  Mes  Paradis  (1894),  share  the  clearly-marked 
tendency  of  recent  literature  towards  an  idealistic  reaction. 


DRAMA  289 

CHAPTER  H 

DRAMA 

The  second  half  of  the  19th  century  is  one  of  the  most 
brilliant  periods  of  the  French  theatre,  the  prevailing  dramatic 
type  being  the  realistic  comedie  de  moeurs,  of  which  the  imme- 
diate forerunner  is  to  be  found  in  Scribe.  The  principal 
representative  of  the  type  is  Alexandra  Dumas  fils,  son  of 
the  novelist,  who  was  born  in  Paris  in  1824,  and  after  a  good 
education,  early  turned  to  literature,  publishing  in  1848  his 
novel  La  Dame  aux  Camillas,  which  he  dramatized  in  the 
following  year.  In  addition  to  novels,  with  which  he  began 
his  literary  career,  and  dramas,  which  form  the  bulk  of  his 
work,  he  wrote  a  large  number  of  essays,  letters,  prefaces,  and 
pamphlets.  He  died  in  1895. 

Of  his  sixteen  plays  among  the  best-known  are:  La  Dame 
aux  CamMias  (1849),  Le  Demi^Monde  (1855),  La  Question  d' Argent 
(1857),  Le  Fils  Naturel  (1858),  Le  Pere  Prodigue  (1859),  Les 
Idfas  de  Madame  Aubray  (1867),  Une  Visile  de  Noces  (1871), 
Denise  (1885). 

In  the  first  of  his  plays,  La  Dame  aux  Camelias,  Dumas  both 
displayed  the  moral  tendency  which  inspired  all  his  dramatic 
work,  and  gave  the  first  intimation  of  the  kind  of  moral 
problems  with  which  he  was  to  occupy  himself.  The  subject 
is  the  same  as  that  of  Victor  Hugo's  Marion  Delorme — the 
rehabilitation  of  a  fallen  woman  through  pure  love.  In  the 
Demi- Monde  he  likewise  treats  the  social  problem  arising 
through  the  existence  in  society  of  this  class,  handling  the 
subject  with  the  greatest  realism  and  outspokenness,  though 
it  is  doubtful  if  his  crusade  had  much  practical  effect  The 
same  note  of  warning  to  the  youth  of  France  is  the  burden  in 
L'Ami  des  Femmes,  Une  Visile  de  Noces,  La  Princesse  Georges, 
and  L'fitrangfae,  while  other  social  or  legal  reforms  are  also 
advocated  in  Le  Fils  Naturel,  Les  Idees  de  Mme  Aulray,  and 
M.  Alphonse. 

(MG43)  T 


290  NINETEENTH   CENTURY— SECOND   PERIOD 

Everywhere,  in  fact,  he  insists  on  the  moral  significance  of 
the  stage,  maintaining  that  it  is  the  duty  of  the  dramatist  to 
expose  the  burning  social  evils  of  his  day,  using  his  position 
for  the  improvement  and  edification,  and  not  merely  for  the 
amusement  of  society.  Yet  commendable  as  is  this  theory, 
it  has  its  dangers,  from  which,  moreover,  Dumas  does  not 
escape,  and  the  pibce  a  thhe,  the  problem  play,  is  only  too  apt 
to  acquire  an  air  of  premeditation,  and  lose  in  life  and  move- 
ment what  it  gains  in  moral  worth. 

Nevertheless,  although  the  didactic  purpose  is  sometimes  too 
prominent,  his  plays  are,  without  exception,  worthy  of  being 
ranked  as  literature,  while  they  reveal  everywhere  a  perfect 
understanding  of  the  requirements  of  the  stage.  Dumas  is  a 
born  dramatist,  and  knows  how  to  give  the  action  the  highest 
degree  of  movement  and  life,  and  to  keep  the  interest  of  the 
public  rooted  to  the  dramatic  business  in  hand. 

His  style  is  vigorous  and  often  brilliant,  while  in  the  art  of 
sustained  dramatic  dialogue  he  is,  thanks  to  his  inexhaustible 
wit  and  verve,  successful  in  a  rare  degree. 

In  short,  his  work  has  many  qualities  of  real  greatness,  and 
was  not  unworthy  of  its  success,  and  of  the  influence  it  exer- 
cised. The  only  pity  is  that  in  the  inculcation  of  the  particular 
moral  lessons  to  which  he  devoted  his  gifts  and  energies  he 
should  not  have  chosen  a  less  paradoxical  method,  and  one 
less  apt  to  defeat  the  very  ends  he  was  seeking  to  attain. 

The  second  in  importance  of  the  dramatists  of  the  period  is 
Emile  Augier  (1820-1889),  who  after  some  pleasant  and  not 
unsuccessful  comedies  and  verse  pieces,  was  directed  by  the 
appearance  of  the  Dame  aitx  Camillas  to  his  true  field,  the 
representation  of  contemporary  manners — the  comddie  de  moeurs. 
In  1854  appeared  Le  Gendre  de  M.  Poirier,  written  in  collabor- 
ation with  Sandeau,  one  of  the  masterpieces  of  the  French 
stage.  It  treats  the  familiar  theme  of  the  evils  resulting  from 
unions  between  needy  aristocrat  and  wealthy  bourgeois.  His 
other  most  famous  pieces  are:  La  Ceinture  Dorfe  (1855),  Le 
Mariage  d'Olympe  (1855),  a  sort  of  counterpart  of  La  Dame  aitx 
Camdlias,  showing  the  disasters  which  result  from  the  attempted 


DRAMA  291 

rehabilitation  of  Olympe;  Les  Lionnes  Pauvres  (1858),  Mattre 
Gufrin  (1864),  Le  Fils  de  Giboyer  (1862),  and  his  last  piece, 
certainly  one  of  his  best,  Les  Fourchambault  (1878),  a  powerful 
picture  of  the  miseries  which  arise  from  marriages  of  money 
or  convenience. 

It  was  Augier's  boast  that  his  life  had  been  one  free  from 
events,  and  his  type  of  mind  is  just  what  would  be  expected 
from  a  regular  successful  life — solid  healthy  good  sense  and 
mental  balance.  It  is  from  an  eminently  sensible  and  practical 
point  of  view  that  he  regards  that  society  of  his  own  day  which 
forms  the  subject-matter  of  his  drama,  and  though  he  too,  like 
Dumas,  has  a  moral  lesson  to  convey,  it  is  no  revolutionary  or 
paradoxical  one.  He  is  before  all  the  painter  of  the  bourgeoisie, 
both  of  Paris  and  the  provinces,  and  both  in  that  respect,  and 
also  on  account  of  many  similarities  of  style  and  treatment, 
has  been  compared  to  Balzac.  He  treats  nearly  all  the  ques- 
tions which  were  agitating  the  particular  society  of  his  choice, 
and  without  display  of  didactic  purpose,  honestly  strives  by 
the  ridicule  of  its  weaknesses  and  vices  to  bring  about  its 
moral  improvement. 

Eugene  Labiche  (1815-1888)  produced  between  1850  and 
1870  a  number  of  vaudevilles,  in  which  a  wonderful  gift  of 
invention  and  the  most  fertile  fancy  and  wit  were  combined 
with  a  certain  reasonableness  even  in  the  wildest  farce.  His 
best  comedies  contain  profound  observation,  and  even  behind 
his  caricatures  is  to  be  discerned  great  delicacy  of  tone  and 
accuracy  of  expression. 

The  best-known  are  Le  Chapeau  de  Paille  d'ltalie  (1851) 
and  Le  Voyage  de  M.  Perrichon  (1860). 

The  above-mentioned  are  the  great  dramatists  of  the  latter 
half  of  the  century,  but  one  or  two  others  must  be  mentioned 
who  have  achieved  a  more  or  less  merited  reputation,  and 
among  them  especially  Victorien  Sardou,  the  most  popular 
of  living  dramatists,  born  at  Paris  in  1831,  who,  after  some 
preliminary  failures,  has  won  immense  success  in  all  branches 
of  the  dramatic  art.  Among  the  best  of  his  numberless 
pieces  may  be  accounted  Nos  Intimes  (1861),  La  Famille  Benoi- 


292  NINETEENTH   CENTURY — SECOND   PERIOD 

ton  (1865),  Nos  Bans  Fillageois  (1866),  Patrie  (1869),  La  Ilaine 
(1874),  Rabagas  (1872),  TModara  (1884),  La  Tosca  (1887), 
Madame  Sans- Gene  (1893),  the  last  in  collaboration  with 
Moreau. 

Sardou  has  attempted  the  serious  historical  play  more  than 
once,  and  notably  in  Patrie,  but  serious  drama  is  not  his 
strong  point.  His  strength  lies  in  the  light  and  satirical  repre- 
sentation of  the  society  of  his  day,  in  which  he  is  a  disciple 
of  Scribe,  whom  he  even  surpasses  in  his  perfect  mastery  of 
all  the  processes  of  scenic  art.  Yet  he  has  not  produced,  or 
apparently  attempted  to  produce,  any  plays  which  are  great 
as  literature,  but  satisfies  himself  with  the  exploitation  of  his 
clever  ideas  in  such  a  way  as  to  make  them  telling  on  the 
stage,  seasoning  them  with  the  effects  and  sensations  likely  to 
amuse  and  thrill,  if  not  to  elevate  the  spectator.  His  purpose 
is  to  fill  the  theatre,  and,  measured  by  merely  commercial 
standards,  their  success  has  rarely,  if  ever,  been  surpassed. 
Their  chief  merit  lies  in  the  brilliant,  lively,  and  at  the  same 
time  natural  dialogue,  the  never-failing  wit,  and  the  clever 
creation  and  manipulation  of  the  intrigue. 

^clouard  Pailleron  (born  in  1834)  has  written  satiric  verse 
and  verse  comedies,  but  his  lasting  fame  depends  on  his 
comedies  in  prose,  and  mainly  upon  one  of  them,  Le  Monde  ou 
Von  s'ennuie  (1881),  probably  the  best  comedy  of  the  last 
twenty  years.  The  world  is  that  of  Moliere's  Femmes  Savantes 
with  the  necessary  differences  of  time  and  circumstance,  while 
spirit  and  treatment  equally  recall  his  famous  model.  Among 
his  other  pieces  the  most  noteworthy  are  Le  Monde  oil  Von 
s'amuse  (1868)  and  Les  Cabotins  (1894). 

Henri  Becque  (born  in  1837),  who,  together  with  the  other  authors 
of  the  TMdtre  Libre,  has  attempted  to  introduce  the  methods  of  the 
naturalistic  novel  on  the  stage.  His  two  best  plays  are  Les  Corbeaux 
(1882)  and  La  Parisienne  (1885). 

De  Curel,  whose  four  plays,  L'Envers  d'une  Sainte  (1892),  Les  Fossiles, 
L' Invitee,  and  L  Amour  Erode,  show  a  tendency  towards  symbolism,  and 
considerable  originality  in  the  analysis  of  character. 

Jules    Lemaitre,   the  famous  critic   (born  in    1853),   has 


PROSE  293 

written  four  pieces  of  great  merit:  RfooUle  (1889),  Le  D6put6 
Leveau  (1891),  Le  Manage  Blanc  (1891),  and  Le  Pardon  (1895), 
which  reveal  an  exceptionally  subtle  psychology,  and  a  power 
of  portraying  simply  and  without  ostentation  the  more  delicate 
emotions  of  the  human  heart. 

Quite  modern,  in  fact  the  latest  craze  in  decadence  and 
symbolism,  are  the  misty  and  mystifying  dramas  of  the 
Belgian  dramatist  Maurice  Maeterlinck — La  Princesse  Maleine 
(1889),  L'lntruse  (1890),  PelUas  et  Melisande  (1892)— in  the 
second  of  which  he  has  once  at  any  rate  succeeded  in  writing 
a  temperament  play  of  genuine  merit.  In  the  mystical 
symbolism  with  which  the  theme  is  set  before  us,  the  feeling 
of  the  presence  of  Death  is  weirdly  but  successfully  evoked. 

Maurice  Maeterlinck  is  somewhat  of  a  problem,  perhaps, 
for  the  critic  of  to-day,  but  in  all  probability  the  critic  of  the 
future  will  find  this  "Belgian  Shakespeare"  less  difficult  to 
dispose  of. 

Last  of  all,  with  a  fame  that  only  dates  from  yesterday, 
comes  Edmond  Kostand  (born  at  Marseilles  in  1868),  the 
author  of  Les  Romanesques  (1894),  La  Princesse  Lointaine  (1895), 
and  La  Samaritaine  (1896),  which  cannot  be  said  in  any  way 
to  adumbrate  the  wonderful  success  achieved  by  his  play  of 
Cyrano  de  Bergerac  in  1897,  at  once  acclaimed  by  all  the 
critics  as  a  masterpiece.  The  opinion,  however,  that  Rostand 
has  inaugurated  a  new  era  in  dramatic  poetry  is  in  the  main 
incorrect.  His  play,  on  the  contrary,  is  an  admirable  fusion 
of  all  anterior  French  dramatic  elements,  including  Victor 
Hugo,  Banville,  Gautier,  Corneille,  Scarron,  and  the  prdcieuses. 


CHAPTER  III 

PROSE 


The  novel  is  the  most  important  and  characteristic  form  of 
the  Realistic  period,  both  the  quantity  and  quality  of  writers 
being  truly  remarkable. 


294  NINETEENTH   CENTURY—  SECOND   PERIOD 

The  greatest  of  these,  and  probably  the  greatest  French 
novelist  next  to  Balzac,  is  Gustave  Flaubert  (1821-1880),  the 
initiator  of  Naturalism,  which,  as  we  have  already  noticed,  is 
merely  Realism  exaggerated,  and  striving,  or  rather  pretend- 
ing, to  adopt  the  processes  of  science. 

His  principal  works  are:  Madame  Bovary  (1857),  Salammbo 
(1862),  L' Education  Sentimentale  (1870),  and  La  Tentation  de 
Saint  Antoine  (1874). 

Madame  Bovary  is  the  story  of  an  unhappily  married  wife, 
who  is  driven  by  the  tedium  of  her  existence  and  the  reading 
of  unhealthy  sentimental  novels  into  vice,  followed  by  despair 
and  suicide.  It  is  a  painful  story,  but  the  penetrating  analysis 
of  morbid  mental  conditions,  and  the  vigour  and  at  the  same 
time  reality  of  the  descriptions,  have  strength  and  genius. 
The  subject  of  Salammbd  is  the  final  struggle  of  Rome  and 
Carthage,  the  scene  being  placed  in  Carthage,  in  which,  \vith 
the  help  of  a  mass  of  historical  and  archaeological  detail,  the 
life  of  far-off  times  and  strange  and  savage  peoples  is  painted 
with  astonishing  life  and  realism.  Where  his  history  and 
archaeology  fail,  Flaubert  draws  on  his  artistic  imagination, 
and  whatever  may  be  the  judgment  of  men  of  learning  on  the 
scientific  aspect  of  the  work,  there  is  no  mistaking  the  extra- 
ordinary artistic  sympathy  which,  hand  in  hand  with  a  rare 
creative  power,  makes  this  strange  and  distant  humanity  live 
and  move  before  our  eyes. 

The  Tentation  de  St.  Antoine  is  an  extraordinary  combination 
of  the  realistic  and  fantastic,  a  masterpiece  in  its  kind. 

Flaubert  combines  the  qualities  of  Romanticism  and  Real- 
ism, and  in  that  consists  his  great  individuality.  He  was  a 
fervent  admirer  of  the  great  romantic  leaders  and  an  idolizer 
of  Victor  Hugo,  and  romantic  influences  are  strongly  marked 
on  all  his  work.  But  with  the  verve  of  sentiment  and 
imagination  of  the  romanticists  he  combined  the  realist's 
conception  of  art  in  the  order  and  solidarity  of  his  work,  and 
great  patience  and  faithfulness  in  the  reproduction  of  nature. 
In  glow  and  colour  of  style  and  in  wealth  of  word  and  imagery 
he  is  purely  romantic,  but  he  is  before  all  things  a  realist  in 


PROSE  295 

his  studied  elimination  of  self,  and  purely  objective  impersonal 
presentment  of  life. 

Flaubert's  production  was  not  great,  but  he  took  the  pains 
to  give  a  lasting  shape  to  his  work,  and  he  has  left  behind 
one  or  two  masterpieces  of  fiction  unsurpassed  and  probably 
unrivalled  in  the  century. 

The  same  tendencies  are  represented  by  the  brothers 
Edmond  de  Goncourt  (1822-1896)  and  Jules  de  Goncourt 
(1830-1870),  one  of  the  rare  examples  in  the  history  of  litera- 
ture of  successful  collaboration.  They  began  by  appreciative 
studies  of  the  art  and  manners  of  the  18th  century,  but 
afterwards  turned  to  fiction,  writing  together  Charles  Demailly 
(1860),  Sceur  Philomene  (1861),  Rente  Mauperin  (1864),  Germinie 
Lucerteux  (1865),  Manette  Salomon  (1867),  and  Mme  Gervaisais 
(1869).  After  Jules'  death  Edmond  continued  to  write  novels, 
of  which  the  most  noticeable  are  Les  Freres  Zemganno  (1879) 
and  La  Faustin  (1882),  and  also  published  the  Journal  des 
Goncourt  (1887-1894),  invaluable  for  a  study  of  the  two 
brothers  and  their  literary  entourage. 

The  De  Goncourts  lay  great  stress  on  the  minute  and 
accurate  description  of  the  environment  of  their  characters, 
seeking  reality  in  the  introduction  of  a  weight  of  detail,  in 
which  they  show  a  marked  preference  of  the  odd  to  the 
typical  in  life,  which  is  equivalent  to  saying  that  they  replaced 
real  psychology  by  the  processes  of  reporting.  Secondly,  they 
endeavoured  in  Germinie  Lacerteux  to  set  up  the  principle  that 
the  coarser  the  matter  the  more  realistic  the  work,  thus  establish- 
ing a  precedent  which  unfortunately  was  destined  to  find  too 
many  adherents  even  among  the  more  gifted  of  their  followers. 

Their  chief  originality,  however,  lies  in  their  impressionist 
style,  which  attempts  by  a  capricious  use  of  the  word  and  a 
subtle,  irregular,  arbitrary  language,  to  give  rather  the  sug- 
gestion of  the  idea  than  its  direct  expression.  Although  fre- 
quently overwrought  and  finical,  their  style  is  always  graceful, 
and  admirably  fitted  for  rendering  certain  very  delicate  shades. 

The  processes  of  Naturalism  have  been  erected  into  a 
system  and  carried  to  extremes  by  Emile  Zola,  the  acknow- 


296  NINETEENTH    CENTURY — SECOND   PERIOD 

Jedged  leader  of  the  Naturalistic  school  of  fiction,  horn  at 
Paris  in  1840  of  an  Italian  family.  After  trying  his  hand 
without  success  at  journalism  and  the  drama,  he  turned  to  the 
writing  of  fiction.  Of  his  earlier  work  the  best  is  found  in 
some  of  his  short  stories,  and  especially  the  charming  Contes 
&  Ninon  (1864),  which  demonstrate  that  he  could  have  ex- 
celled in  this  branch  of  literature  if  he  had  chosen  to  lay 
aside  his  theories  and  his  rather  ponderous  style.1  After  1870 
he  entered  upon  an  enormous  gallery  of  novels,  conceived  on 
the  plan  of  Balzac's  Comedie  Humaine,  entitled  Les  Rougon- 
Macquart  (1871-1893),  the  chief  being  La  Faute  de  I' Abbe" 
Mouret,  Le  Venire  de  Paris,  La  Curee,  L'Assommoir  (1877);  Ger- 
minal (1885),  La  DeUde  (1892). 

Lastly  must  be  mentioned  his  trilogy  of  three  cities,  Lourdes 
(1894),  Rome  (1896),  Paris  (1898),  which  are  rather  critical 
studies  than  real  novels. 

Les  Rougon-Macquart,  Histoire  Naturelle  et  Sociale  d'une  Famille 
sous  le  Second  Empire,  to  give  it  its  full  title,  comprises  in  all 
some  score  of  volumes,  to  which  Zola  pretends  to  give  a  sort 
of  unity  by  means  of  the  appearance  and  reappearance  of 
members  of  the  same  family,  but  between  which  the  connection 
is  not  very  real  or  essential.  They  treat  of  life  on  all  its  sides 
and  in  all  its  phases,  and  show  how  thoroughly  the  author  has 
carried  out  his  own  "Naturalist"  theory  of  the  study  of  the 
"document  humain".  For  not  only  is  Zola  the  principal  ex- 
ponent of  the  Naturalist  school,  but  he  is  also  its  theorist  and 
doctrinaire,  the  chief  of  the  principles  which  he  lays  down  for 
the  writer  of  Naturalist  fiction  being  the  necessity  of  that 
preliminary  study  of  life  and  humanity  which  consists  in 
noting  down  at  first  hand  characteristic  and  individual  phases 
and  details  of  existence,  building  up  from  them  a  sort  of  note- 
book on  life  for  future  use.  This,  with  its  pretensions  to 
science,  in  which  for  Zola  there  is  one  question  of  supreme 
interest,  that  of  heredity,  are  the  characteristic  features  of  the 
school,  and  are  fully  illustrated  in  its  chief. 

1  Another  proof  is  the  delightful  Attaque  du  Moulin  in  the  Soirees  de 
M6dan,  a  collection  by  a  group  of  Naturalists. 


PROSE  297 

Zola's  work  shows  great  power  and  vigour  of  treatment 
applied  to  the  most  trivial  or  unworthy  subjects.  He  has  a 
rare  gift  of  evoking  the  life  of  humanity  in  the  mass,  and  a 
wealth  ef  description  which  reminds  one  of  the  best  days  of 
Romanticism;  but  at  the  same  time  we  get  the  most  brutal 
and  sordid  conception  of  life,  and  a  fulness  of  ugly  and  re- 
volting detail  which,  though  it  may  have  its  counterpart  in 
life,  does  not  represent  the  experience  of  the  normal  man,  but 
the  results  of  a  search  undertaken  with  the  express  purpose 
of  its  discovery.  Intentionally  or  not,  his  work  is  of  the  most 
gloomy  and  dispiriting  pessimism,  and  it  is  likely  to  leave 
behind  upon  the  reader,  if  not  a  demoralizing,  at  any  rate 
an  unwholesome  and  discouraging  impression. 

Among  the  Realists  must  be  counted  Alphonse  Daudet 
(1840-1898),  although  he  offers  many  points  of  divergence. 
He  was  born  at  Nimes,  and  at  the  age  of  seventeen  set  out 
for  Paris,  where  he  became  a  secretary  of  the  Due  de  Morny. 
His  travels  in  Corsica  and  Algeria  are  worthy  of  mention  on 
account  of  the  influence  they  had  on  his  literary  work. 

His  fiction  falls  naturally  into  three  divisions: 

(a)  Novels,  dealing  especially  with  Parisian  life:  Fromont 
Jeune  et  Eider  Aine  (1874),  Jack  (1876),  Le  Nabob  (1878),  Les 
Piois  en  Exil  (1879),  Numa  Eoumestan  (1880),  Sapho  (1884). 

(b)  Short  Stories:  Lettres  de  mon  Moulin  (1869),  delightful 
sketches  of  the  life  of  Provence;  Conies  du  Lundi  (1872),  mostly 
reminiscences  of  the  Franco-Prussian  war. 

(c)  Humorous  Novels,  the  Tartarin  series:  Tartarin  de  Tar- 
ascon  (1872),  Tartarin  sur  les  Alpes  (1886),  and  Port  Tarascon 
(1890),  the  amusing  story  of  the  typical  Meridional,  loquacious, 
good-humoured,  and  boastful,  full  of  enthusiasms  and  illusions, 
who  has  only  to  recount  some  imaginary  adventure  of  his  own 
in  order  to  believe  it  the  next  moment,  and  which  for  its  quiet, 
half-satirical  humour  and  caricatured  reality,  as  it  were,  has 
been  not  without  reason  compared  to  the  manner  of  Dickens. 

Daudet  reveals  the  influence  of  the  school  in  his  preference 
for  subjects  taken  from  low  life,  while  he  often  shows  a  fond- 
ness for  treating  life's  failures  and  bankrupts.  Yet  though 


298  NINETEENTH   CENTURY— SECOND   PERIOD 

low  and  depraved  characters  are  found  in  his  works  in  plenty, 
they  are  placed  at  the  right  perspective,  while  he  by  nature 
avoids  all  that  is  merely  disgusting  and  repulsive.  His  main 
characteristics  are  to  be  found  in  a  delicate,  and  on  the  whole 
optimistic  sentiment,  which  is  mingled  with  a  gentle  irony,  and 
treated  in  a  charmingly  light,  vivacious,  and  graceful  style. 

His  novels  are  among  the  most  wholesome,  purely  pleasing, 
and  at  the  same  time  artistic  that  the  last  half-century  has 
produced,  a  characteristic  feature  being  a  skilful  and  telling 
admixture  of  humour  and  pathos,  which  is  found  in  no  other 
French  writer  to  the  same  degree. 

Guy  de  Maupassant  (1850-1893),  a  godson  of  Flaubert, 
fought  in  the  Franco-Prussian  war,  and  after  writing  verse, 
some  of  which  possessed  admirable  lyrical  qualities,  turned  to 
the  writing  of  short  stories  and  novels.  The  most  famous 
of  the 

(a)  Conies  are  the  collections:  Le  Horla  (1887),  La  Maison 
Tellier  (1881),  M.  Parent  (1886),  and  Mile  Fiji  (1882);  of  the 

(6)  Novels:  Une  Vie  (1883),  Bel  Ami  (1885),  La  Petite  Rogue 
(1886),  Pierre  et  Jean  (1888),  and  Fort  comme  la  Mart  (1889). 

The  merit  of  Maupassant's  novels  is  great,  and  some  of 
them,  especially  the  later  ones,  are  among  the  most  powerful 
that  French  narrative  art  has  produced,  but  it  is  as  the  greatest 
representative  of  the  short  story  that  he  occupies  a  unique 
position  in  French  literature.  It  is  no  exaggeration  to  assert 
that  it  is  to  his  influence  that  is  due  the  great  spread  of  this 
genre  both  in  England  and  Germany.  He  has  written  in  all 
over  a  hundred  of  these  conies,  dealing  with  the  most  varied 
themes,  and  covering  a  wide  range  of  tone,  but  all  showing 
the  keen  insight  and  analysis  of  a  master.  His  command  of 
language  is  no  less  remarkable,  and  his  concise  and  yet  vivid 
expression  places  him  high  among  the  great  French  stylists. 
Of  his  choice  of  subject  a  less  favourable  story  is  to  be  told, 
and  he  not  infrequently  represents  Naturalism  in  its  most 
material  form,  while  the  springs  of  human  action  he  generally 
finds  in  the  requirements  of  the  different  physical  satisfactions. 

Outside  the  ranks   of   Naturalism   fiction  has  also   found 


PROSE  299 

many  famous  representatives.  The  novel  of  romantic  ideal- 
ism, inaugurated  by  George  Sand,  was  continued  by  Octave 
Feuillet  (1821-1890),  who  was  born  in  Normandy,  but  early 
went  to  Paris,  where,  after  beginning  as  one  of"  Dumas'  assist- 
ants, he  started  his  independent  literary  career  with  comedies 
and  other  dramatic  pieces,  and  later  gained  popularity  with 
the  idealistic  novel  Le  Roman  d'ur  Jeune  Homme  Pauwe  (1858). 
The  best  of  those  which  followed  are  M.  de  Camors  (1867), 
Julia  de  Trfcceur  (1872),  and  La  Mwte  (1886). 

In  his  later  novels  Feuillet  shows  traces  of  the  prevailing 
spirit  of  realism,  and  paints  often  enough  with  a  very  vigorous 
and  daring  touch,  though  what  he  gains  in  force  he  loses  in 
that  elegance  which  is  one  of  his  best  qualities.  He  is  distin- 
guished above  all  for  his  delicate  charm  of  sentiment,  the  placid 
optimism  of  his  conception  of  human  nature,  and  especially  hia 
painting  of  the  manners  of  aristocratic  society,  in  which  at  the 
same  time  he  is  doubtless  guilty  of  a  certain  degree  of  ideal' 
ization,  and  is  not  innocent  of  the  charge  of  insipidity. 

Edmond  About  (1828-1885),  born  in  Lorraine,  followed  up 
a  brilliant  career  at  the  Lycee  Charlemagne  and  the  Ecole 
Normale  by  studying  archaeology  in  Athens,  and  on  his  return 
to  Paris  made  his  reputation  by  the  publication  of  the  study 
La  Grece  Contemporaine  (1855).  His  novels  include:  Tolla 
(1855),  Les  Mariages  de  Paris  (1856),  Le  Em  des  Montagues  (1856), 
Trente  et  Quarante  (1858),  Le  Roman  d'un  Brave  Homme  (1880). 

Without  any  particular  depth,  the  novels  of  About  show 
abundant  wit  and  an  amount  of  light  and  charming  satire 
which,  combined  with  a  lively  power  of  description,  has  given 
them  a  very  considerable  and  not  unmerited  popularity. 

Victor  Cherbuliez  was  born  at  Geneva  in  1829,  educated  at 
Paris  and  in  Germany,  and  in  1864  was  called  to  Paris  to 
join  the  staff  of  the  Revue  des  Deux  Mondes.  Among  his  many 
novels  might  be  mentioned  the  Roman  d'une  Honnete  Femme 
(1866),  Mtta  Holddnis  (1873),  L'IfUe  de  Jean  Teterol  (1878).  He 
died  in  1899. 

His  novels  are  clever,  and  show  great  taste  and  wide  and 
varied  knowledge.  By  their  mixture  of  narrative  and  philo- 


300  NINETEENTH   CENTURY— SECOND   PERIOD 

sophic  reflection,  and  their  amusing  if  somewhat  eccentric 
originality,  they  have  appealed  to  a  large  class  of  readers, 
though  they  are  not  calculated  to  attain  universal  popularity. 
To  them  is  due  the  introduction  of  a  certain  type  of  fantastic 
novel  into  French  literature. 

Anatole  France,  whose  real  name  is  Thibaut,  born  at  Paris 
in  1844,  in  addition  to  poetry  and  criticism,  has  written  a 
number  of  novels — Le  Crime  de  Silvestre  Bonnard  (1881),  Le 
Livre  de  Mon  Ami  (1885),  Le  Lys  Rouge  (1894) — charming 
stories,  which  deal  in  a  playful  way  with  various  philosophic 
and  scientific  mysteries  and  curiosities,  and  in  which  there  is 
much  delicate  fancy  and  very  little  striving  after  realism. 
He  is  one  of  the  most  versatile  of  novelists,  and  one  of  the 
most  delightful  conteurs  in  French  literature. 

Pierre  Loti,  who  in  real  life  is  Julien  Viaud  and  a  naval 
officer,  was  born  at  Rochefort  in  1850.  His  first  novel  of 
mark,  Le  Manage  de  Loti  (1880),  from  which  his  pseudonym  is 
taken,  has  been  followed  by  a  number  of  others,  of  which  the 
most  famous  are:  Le  Roman  dun  Spahi  (1881),  Mon  Frkre  Yves 
(1883),  Pecheur  d'Islande  (1886),  Madame  ChrysantMme  (1887), 
Ramuntcho  (1897). 

Loti's  distinctive  place  in  contemporary  literature  is  due  to 
his  brilliant  and  original  pictures  of  natural  scenery,  in  which 
he  is  the  successor  of  Bernardin  de  St.  Pierre  and  Chateau- 
briand. He  manages  to  convey  a  wonderful  impression  of 
sensuous  and  emotional  sympathy  with  nature  in  all  the 
forms  in  which  he  has  learnt  to  know  her  in  his  long  years  of 
travel  on'  many  seas  and  in  many  lands.  There  is  something 
elemental  in  the  way  in  which  he  interprets  the  significance 
of  the  misty  rainy  coast  of  Brittany  in  its  melancholy  and 
gray  monotony,  or  the  dead  expanse  of  a  wide  unbounded 
plain  of  waters. 

Loti  by  his  gift  of  imagination,  his  power  of  poetic  sugges- 
tion, and  his  charm  of  manner  and  style,  is  one  of  the  most 
prominent  figures  of  contemporary  literature,  while  he  is 
one  of  the  greatest  word-painters  in  the  whole  of  French 
literature. 


PROSE  301 

Another  author  who  takes  a  high  position  among  contem- 
porary writers  of  fiction  is  Paul  Bourget  (born  in  1852),  the 
recognized  head  of  the  so-called  Psychological  School,  and  the 
greatest  master  of  the  novel  of  mental  and  moral  analysis 
since  Stendhal.  His  principal  works  are:  Cruelle  Enigme 
(1885),  Crime  d'Amour  (1886),  Mensonges  (1887),  Le  Disciple 
(1889),  Cosmopolis  (1892). 

Instead  of  limiting  his  observation  to  the  externals  of  life, 
like  Zola  and  his  followers,  he  applies  the  methods  of  natural- 
ism to  purely  psychological  subjects,  arid  laboriously  and 
carefully,  with  a  mass  of  detail,  builds  up  the  history  of  human 
souls.  Although  his  minute  dissection  of  character  is  apt  at 
times  to  become  tedious,  he  has  rendered  no  small  service  in 
dragging  the  novel  from  the  bog  of  animalism. 

Bourget's  work  deals  almost  exclusively  with  Parisian  high 
life  and  cosmopolitan  types  studied  during  his  travels. 

The  enormous  output  in  the  field  of  contemporary  French 
fiction  has  been  increased  by  a  number  of  less  considerable 
writers : 

Emile  Erckmann  (1822-1899)  and  Alexandra  Chatrian 
(1826-1890),  two  natives  of  Lorraine,  entered  in  1847  upon  a 
collaboration  which  met  with  no  considerable  success  till  the 
publication  of  Dlllustre  Docteur  Mathdus  (1859).  Among  their 
many  stories  may  be  mentioned:  Histoire  d'un  Consent  (1864), 
Waterloo  (1865),  Le  Blocus  (1867),  L'Ami  Fritz  (1876),  La 
Guerre  (1885).  The  reputation  of  their  stories  is  due  to  the 
simple  and  truthful  painting  of  the  homely  conditions  of  life 
in  Lorraine,  in  which  they  are  unique  in  French  literature. 

Ferdinand  Fabre  (born  1830)  deserves  a  greater  reputation  among 
modern  French  novelists  for  his  profound  studies  of  clerical  life  and  his 
delicate  delineations  of  peasant  character.  His  best-known  novels  are : 
L'Abbt  Tigrainc  (1873),  L'Oncle  BarnaU  (1875),  and  Ma  Vocation  (1879). 

Gustave  Droz  (1832-1895)  achieved  a  great  success  with  his  first  book, 
Monsieur,  Madame,  et  Bebe  (1866),  which  gives  a  charmingly  naive  and 
humorous  sketch  of  the  pleasures  of  domestic  life.  He  has  written  other 
novels,  but  none  have  had  the  fortune  of  his  first  venture. 

Andre  Theuriet,  born  in  1833  in  Lorraine,  but  who  migrated  in  1857 
to  Paris,  where  he  held  a  post  under  the  minister  of  finance,  made  his 


302  NINETEENTH   CENTURY — SECOND   PERIOD 

reputation  by  poems,  notably  Le  Chcmin  des  Bois  (1867),  Le  Bleu  et  le 
Noir  (1874) ;  and  has  written  a  number  of  novels,  Raymonde  (1877),  La 
Princesse  Verte,  Mon  Oncle  Scipion,  La  t'hanoinesse,  &c.  He  paints  in 
bold  strokes,  and  with  a  realism  which  is  at  the  same  time  free  from 
objectionable  elements,  the  life  of  the  country  and  small  towns.  The 
impression  Theuriet's  charming  books  leave  in  one's  mind  is  ably  summed 
up  by  the  critic,  M.  Andre  Lemoyne :  "  Ce  qui  ressort  surtout  dcs  livres 
d' Andre  Theuriet,  c'est  I 'amour  de  la  nature  forestiere,  Vintime  souvenir 
de  la  vie  campagnarde,  et  en  mSme  temps  une  pitii  profonde  pour  les  souf- 
frants,  les  desheritds  de  ce  monde  ".  As  a  poet  he  is  chiefly  remarkable 
as  being  the  most  sincere  and  original  of  that  group  of  rustic  poets  which 
the  Parnassian  school  includes  in  its  ranks. 

Joris  Karl  Huysmans  was  born  at  Paris  in  1848,  but  is  of 
Flemish  origin.  Starting  life  as  an  ultra-realist,  to  which  early 
period  belong  Les  Soeurs  Vaiard,  Marthe,  and  En  Manage,  he 
afterwards  passed  over  with  A  liebours  and  La-bas  to  a  com- 
bination of  this  exaggerated  Naturalism  with  something  of  the 
morose  Satanism  of  Baudelaire.  Finally,  with  En  Route,  he 
Abandons  his  master  Zola,  and  by  an  intelligible  reaction  passes 
over  to  a  kind  of  esoteric  mysticism. 

In  spite  of  his  eccentric  choice  of  subjects,  Huysmans  is 
undoubtedly  highly  gifted,  and  we  must  regret  the  perversion 
of  talent  which  most  of  his  work  reveals. 

Georges  Ohnet,  born  at  Paris  in  1848,  has  written  a  large  number  of 
novels,  which  command  a  surprising  sale.  Among  his  stories,  to  which 
he  has  given  the  general  title  of  Les  Batailles  de  la  Vie,  the  most  read  of 
all  is  Le  Mattre  de  Forges  (1882) ;  while  others  are:  Serge  Panine  (1881), 
La  Grande  Marniere  (1885),  Nimrod  et  Cie  (1893),  and  La  Femme  en 
Gris  (1895).  All  are  compounded  of  the  commonplace,  with  set  expres- 
sions and  stock  situations,  while  over  the  whole  is  shed  a  cheap  bourgeois 
morality.  Regarded  from  a  mercantile  point  of  view  they  must  be  highly 
satisfactory  to  all  concerned. 

Edouard  Rod,  a  Swiss,  born  in  1857,  who,  after  studying  at 
Lausanne  and  in  Germany,  settled  in  Paris,  has  written  a  large 
number  of  works,  including  some  novels,  of  which  the  best- 
known  are  Michel  Teissier  (1892)  and  La  Seconde  Vie  de  Michel 
Teissier  (1893).  Looking  at  life  with  the  cosmopolitanism  of 
the  Swiss,  he  treats  the  problems  of  the  day  with  depth  and 


PROSE  303 

insight  in  novels  which  may  be  somewhat  overweighted,  but 
are  certainly  not  lacking  in  solid  interest. 

Paul  Margueritte  (born  1860)  is  among  those  who  have  deserted  the 
flag  of  Naturalism.  His  later  novels,  of  which  the  best  are  Pascal  Gavosse 
(1889),  La  Force  des  Chases  (1891),  and  Fors  I'Honneur  (1895),  strike  a 
hopeful  note  of  healthy  morality. 

A  rigid  application  of  the  modern  scientific  spirit  to  the 
history  of  religion  is  the  key-note  of  the  most  remarkable 
among  the  works  of  Ernest  Renan,  born  at  Treguier,  in  Brit- 
tany,  in  1823.  He  was  intended  for  the  church,  and  educated 
accordingly,  first  in  his  native  town,  and  later  at  the  seminary 
of  Saint-Sulpice.  Gradually,  however,  his  naturally  critical 
spirit,  strengthened  by  the  study  of  ancient  and  modern 
philosophy,  undermined  his  religious  beliefs,  and  he  renounced 
the  idea  of  the  priesthood.  Continuing,  however,  his  critical 
study  of  Christianity,  and  aided  in  his  methods  by  a  mission 
to  the  East  in  1860,  during  which  he  visited  Syria  and  the 
Holy  Land,  he  began  the  publication  of  his  works,  the  first  of 
his  important  books  being  the  Vie  de  Jesus  in  1862.  He  died 
in  1892. 

His  principal  work  is  contained  in  the  Origines  du  Christian- 
isme,  which  comprises  the  Vie  de  Jesus  (1862),  Les  Ap6tres 
(1866),  Saint  Paul  (1869),  L' Antichrist  (1873),  Les  Evangiles 
(1877),  L'Eglise  Chretienne  (1870),  and  Marc  Aurele  (1883). 
This  had  been  preceded  by  the  Histoire  Gtntrale  des  Langues 
SSmiliques  (1854),  Etudes  d 'Histoire  Religieuse  (1856),  and  was 
followed  by  the  important  Histoire  du  Peuple  d' Israel  (1888- 
1894). 

Kenan's  importance  does  not  lie  in  any  great  originality 
either  in  the  results  of  his  research  or  in  his  religious  doubt, 
but  in  the  way  in  which  he  established  the  relativity  of 
religion,  and  in  the  fact  that  he  may  be  almost  said  to  have 
created  the  history  of  religion.  He  has  once  for  all  settled 
the  question  of  revelation,  giving  to  all  the  choice  between  an 
acceptation  of  revealed  religion  as  a  pure  act  of  voluntarily 
unreasoning  faith,  and  its  rejection  on  philosophic  and  scientific 
grounds.  Keligion  which  is  permanent  and  eternal  in  humanity, 


304  NINETEENTH  CENTURY — SECOND  PERIOD 

although  its  symbols  are  ever  changing,  is  for  him  the  imper- 
ishable ideal,  the  highest  beauty  in  the  moral  world. 

Renan  has  made  of  this  science  of  the  history  of  religion 
a  true  literary  branch.  He  is  capable  both  of  eloquent  pas- 
sages of  appeal  and  of  glowing  description.  His  style  has  the 
indescribable  quality  of  charm,  while  in  its  quiet  irony  and 
simple  pliability  it  is  perfectly  adapted  to  his  subtle  treatment 
of  a  difficult  subject.  He  is  incontestably  one  of  the  greatest, 
if  not  the  greatest,  prose  writer  of  the  19th  century. 

Sainte-Beuve's  method  of  criticism  was  reduced  to  mathe- 
matical precision  by  Hippolyte  Taine  (1828-1893),  born  at 
Vouziers,  in  the  Ardennes,  and  educated  at  the  ficole  Normale. 
Li  1853  he  entered  upon  his  important  literary  career  with 
the  brilliant  study,  La  Fontaine  et  ses  Fables.  Apart  from  his 
two  great  works,  the  Histoire  de  la  Literature  Anglaise  (1863- 
1864),  and  the  Origines  de  la  France  Contemporaine — comprising 
L'Ancien  Regime  (1875),  La  Involution  (1878-1885),  and  Le 
Regime  Moderne  (1890-1894) — his  remaining  works  include 
the  Voyage  aux  Pyrenees  (1855),  Les  Philosophes  Fran$ais  du 
XIXe  Sihle  (1856), '  Essais  de  Critique  et  d'Histoire  (1857), 
Nouveaux  Essais  (1865),  Voyage  en  Italic  (1866). 

Although  he  made  a  great  reputation  both  as  a  historian 
and  a  philosopher,  Taine  is  most  notable  as  a  critic.  The 
originality  of  his  critical  theories,  as  first  expounded  in  his 
preface  to  the  Histoire  de  la  Literature  Anglaise  in  1863,  con- 
sists in  the  application  of  the  scientific  and  naturalistic  method 
to  literature,  following  which  he  regards  all  literary  works 
as  the  necessary  products  of  certain  general  causes  capable  of 
being  traced  by  proper  method  and  investigation.  These  are : 
Nationality;  Conditions  in  general,  such  as  climate,  political, 
social,  and  historical  circumstances;  the  Psychological  Moment. 
These  principles  he  notably  applies  to  English  literature,  and 
in  such  a  way  as  to  reveal  the  element  of  weakness  in  the 
theory,  which  consists  in  the  want  of  allowance  made  for  the 
individual  and  the  deviation  from  the  type,  and  its  tendency 
to  regard  literary  genius  too  much  as  the  mechanical  resulta-nt 
of  certain  known  and  clearly-defined  productive,  forces.  He 


PROSE  305 

urdoubtedly  gave  considerable  impetus  to  the  Naturalistic 
movement,  but  it  is  entirely  unfair  to  make  him  responsible 
for  its  exaggerations  and  excesses. 

Taine  applies  the  same  methods  of  deduction  and  system- 
atization  to  history,  and  falls,  as  in  literature,  into  the  faults 
of  mechanical  symmetry  and  artificial  unity,  which  are  inevi- 
table consequences  of  the  system. 

He  possesses  a  vigorous  and  pregnant  style,  which,  though 
capable  of  great  concentration  of  thought,  is  saved  by  his 
imaginative  faculty  from  dryness.  In  some  of  his  descriptive 
passages,  and  especially  in  the  Voyage  aux  Pyrdndes,  he  shows 
the  power  of  writing  with  admirable  colour  and  relief. 

Among  the  number  of  noteworthy  names  by  which  criticism 
since  Taine  has  been  represented  the  most  famous  is  that  of 
Ferdinand  Brunetiere  (born  in  1849),  whose  importance  for 
French  literature  is  twofold.  Firstly,  as  the  champion  of  the 
classical  tradition  he  attacked  Naturalism,  especially  in  Le 
Roman  Naturaliste  (1883),  and  was  largely  instrumental  in 
hastening  its  end.  Secondly,  pursuing  but  at  the  same  time 
modifying  the  system  of  Taine,  he  applied  the  theory  of  evolu- 
tion to  literary  criticism,  showing  how,  as  in  living  organisms, 
the  different  types  in  turn  spring  from  one  another,  develop, 
compete,  and  die.  Where  he  improves  on  Taine  is  in  making 
more  allowance  for  the  personal  element,  the  phenomenon  of 
individual  genius.  Beside  the  already-mentioned  Roman  Natu- 
raliste, his  principal  works  are:  Etudes  Critiques  (1880),  Histoire 
el  Literature  (1884-1886),  L' Evolution  des  Genres  (1890-1894). 

The  most  brilliant  of  the  younger  critics  is  Jules  Lemaitre, 
who  thinks  more  of  enjoying,  and  helping  others  to  enjoy,  than 
of  classifying,  weighing,  and  comparing,  to  paraphrase  some 
words  of  his  own.  He  has  no  system  or  theory  to  expound, 
but  treats  literature  from  the  subjective  stand-point.  He 
describes  criticism  as  a  representation  of  the  world,  like  other 
branches  of  literature,  and  hence  by  its  nature  as  relative,  as 
vain,  and  therefore  as  interesting  as  they,  and  consequently, 
instead  of  deducing  literary  productions,  he  contents  himself 
with  defining  them,  and  giving  the  impressions  they  produce 

(11643)  V 


306  NINETEENTH   CENTURY — SECOND   PERIOD 

upon  himself.  He  has  devoted  himself  especially  to  modern 
literature,  on  which  he  has  written  a  series  of  remarkable 
essays,  Les  Contemporains  (1886,  1899),  in  a  terse,  subtle,  and 
wittily  ironical  style  which  frequently  recalls  Kenan.  His 
Imjrressions  de  Thd&tre  appeared  from  1888  to  1896,  while  of 
his  dramatic  work  mention  has  already  been  made. 

We  have  already  spoken  of  the  poetry  and  fiction  of  Anatole 
France,  but  it  is  as  a  critic  that  he  finds  his  true  individu- 
ality. The  critical  spirit  pervades  the  whole  of  his  thought, 
so  much  so  that  his  novels  are  almost  as  much  of  criticism  as 
romance.  Moreover,  the  converse  is  equally  true,  for  he  re- 
gards criticism  as  only  another  kind  of  novel  of  a  more  purely 
analytical  and  introspective  nature.  The  bond  of  connection 
between  the  two,  as  he  conceived  them,  is  their  purely  sub- 
jective character,  and  he  can  no  more  conceive  of  objective 
criticism  than  of  objective  art.  In  the  blending  of  sympathy 
and  delicate  irony  he  also  strongly  reminds  us  of  Renan.  His 
style,  which,  as  Lemaitre  says,  contains  elements  of  Racine, 
Voltaire,  Flaubert,  and  Renan,  represents  in  its  perfection 
of  grace  the  Latin  genius  in  fullest  bloom.  His  only  critical 
work  which  has  been  published  in  book  form  is  the  two 
volumes  of  the  Fie  LitMraire  (1888,  1890). 

Finally,  Melchior  de  Vogiie  (born  in  1850)  has  exercised  a 
great  influence  on  recent  literature;  the  Neo-Christian  move- 
ment, a  return  to  evangelical  Christianity,  being  due  in  great 
measure  to  his  critical  studies  on  the  great  Russian  novel- 
ists. 

His  chief  works  are:  Le  Roman  Eusse  (1886),  Souvenirs  et 
Visions  (1887),  Spectacles  Contemporains  (1896). 

Amid  the  poverty  of  historical  production  which  has  fol- 
lowed the  remarkable  outburst  of  the  earlier  part  of  the  cen- 
tury, one  man  has  with  good  cause  been  hailed  as  a  great 
historian  and  a  great  writer. 

Fustel  de  Coulanges  (1830-1889)  has  left  two  works  of 
note,  the  Citt  Antique  (1864),  an  attempt  at  a  full  and  profound 
investigation  of  ancient  states  of  society,  and  the  Histoire  des 
Institutions  Politiques  de  VAncienne  France  (1875-1889),  his 


PROSE  307 

masterpiece,  which  was  unfortunately  left  unfinished  at  his 
death. 

The  characteristics  of  his  method  are  to  be  found  in  the 
honesty  with  which  he  examines  all  documents  and  texts  that 
bear  on  the  epochs  with  which  he  is  concerned,  and  the  resolute 
attempt  he  makes  to  lay  aside  all  preconceptions  and  modern 
prejudices  before  approaching  them.  For  him  history  is  one 
of  the  exact  sciences,  and  scrupulous  analysis  the  essential 
method  to  be  employed. 

His  main  interest  lies  in  the  growth  and  development  of 
states  of  society,  and  his  two  already-mentioned  works  treat 
of  the  great  changes  which  prepared  the  way  for  the  rise  of 
the  society  of  to-day,  namely,  the  transformation  of  ancient 
forms  of  belief  and  the  growth  of  feudalism. 

His  style  is  severe  and  concise,  and  while  unembarrassed  by 
any  mere  ornament,  capable  of  obtaining  great  effects  by 
simple  means. 


INDEX 


NOTE. — The  article  and  its  compounds  are  treated  as  integral  parts  of 
names,  but  not  the  preposition  "de  ". 


About,  Edmond,  299. 

Academy,  The  French,  92,  119-120. 

Adam,  Jeu  ef,  22. 

Adam  de  la  Halle,  20,  25. 

Aimeri  de  Narbonne,  12. 

Alberic  de  Briangon,  13. 

Alembert  (D')(  198,  199,  202-203. 

Alexandre  de  Bernai,  14. 

Alienor  of  Aquitaine.     See  Eleanor. 

Aliscans,  n. 

Amis  et  Amiles,  n. 

Amyot,  44,  75-76. 

Ancients  and  Moderns,   Quarrel  of  the, 

I55-I57- 

Andre  de  Coutances,  31. 
Arnauld,  Antoine,  123,  124,  125. 
Aubanel,  4. 
Aubigne  (D1),  67-68. 
A  ucassin  et  Nicolette,  36. 
Augier,  Emile,  290-291. 

Bai'f,  Antoine  de,  59,  65. 

Balzac,  Guez  de,  93,  121. 

Balzac,  Honore  de,  238,  266-268. 

Banville,  Theodore  de,  277-278. 

Barbier,  Auguste,  258. 

Basoche  (La),  26. 

Baudelaire,  Charles,  278-279. 

Bayle,  95,  I54-'5S- 

Beaubreuil,  Jean  de,  109. 

Beaumarchais,  165,  180-181 

Becque,  Henri,  292. 

Bedel,  Jean,  29. 

Belleau,  Remi,  65. 

Benoit  de  Sainte-More,  14,  34. 

Beranger,  216-218. 

Bernardin  de  Saint-Pierre,  166,  185-186. 

Bernier,  29. 

Be'roul,  16. 

Bertaut,  69. 

Berte  aux  Grands  Pits,  12. 

Berze,  Hugues  de,  30. 


Beyle.    See  Stendhal. 
Beze  (De),  71. 
Bodel,  Jean,  20,  22. 
Bodin,  Jean,  78. 
Boileau,  127-129,  155,  156. 
Boisrobert  (De),  135. 
Bonald  (De),  229. 
Boron,  Robert  de,  17. 
Bossuet,  147-151. 
Bourdaloue,  151-152. 
Bourget,  Paul,  301. 
Brant6me,  77. 
Brizeux,  258. 
Brunetiere,  305. 
Brunetto  Latino,  37. 
Buffon,  211-212. 

Calvin,  Jean,  43,  56-58. 

Ctnacle  (Lt),  237-238,  268. 

Chantelouve,  71. 

Chapelain,  104,  no. 

Charles  d'Orleans,  37-38. 

Charroi  de  Ntntes,  n. 

Charron,  Pierre,  89. 

Charte  aux  Anglais,  31. 

Chartier,  Alain,  21. 

Chateaubriand,  215-216,  222-227. 

Chatelain  de  Coucy.    See  Gui  de  Coucy. 

Chatrian,  301. 

Che'nier,  Andre",  172-175. 

Cherbuliez,  Victor,  299—300 

Chesnaye,  Nicole  de  la,  50. 

Chretien,  Florent,  81. 

Chretien  de  Troie,  16. 

Christine  de  Pisan,  21. 

Chronique  de  Du  Guesclin,  10. 

Combat  des  Trente,  10. 

Commines,  6,  35-36,  42. 

Condillac,  203. 

Condorcet,  204-205. 

Confrfrie  de  la  Passion,  24-25,  70. 

Conon  de  Belhune,  19. 


310 


INDEX 


Conrart,  Valentin,  120. 
Constant,  Benjamin,  229. 
Coppe"e,  Fra^ois,  281. 
Corneille,  Pierre,  110-116. 
Corneille,  Thomas,  145. 
Courier,  Paul  Louis,  229-231. 
Courtebarbe,  29. 
Cousin,  Victor,  275-276. 
Covenant  Vivien,  n. 
Cre"billon  pere,  175. 
Cretin,  40. 
Curel  (De),  241,  292. 

Dacier  (Mme),  157. 

Daigaliers,  Pierre  de  Laudun,  109. 

Dancourt,  153. 

Danton,  214. 

Daudet,  Alphonse,  297-298. 

Daurat  (or  Dorat),  59. 

Decadents  (Les),  239-240,  282. 

Delavigne,  Casimir,  218. 

Delille,  164,  171. 

Desbordes-Valmore  (Mme),  258. 

Descartes,  121-123. 

Deschamps,  Antony,  268. 

Deschamps,  Emile,  268. 

Deschamps,  Eustache,  21,  26. 

Desmarets  de  Saint-Sorlin,  104,  155-156. 

Desmasures,  Loys,  71. 

Des  Periers,  Bonaventure,  55-56. 

Desportes,  69. 

Destouches,  179. 

Diderot,  166,  185,  198,  199-202. 

Dit  de  la  Rebellion  d' Angleterre,  31. 

Doon  de  Mayence,  12. 

Droz,  301. 

Du  Bartas,  66-67. 

Du  Bellay,  Joachim,  60,  64-65,  69. 

Du  Deffand  (Mme),  212. 

Dumas  fils,  Alexandre,  289-290. 

Dumas  pere,  Alexandre,  258-259,  261-262 

Durant,  Gilles,  81. 

Du  Vair,  90. 

Eleanor,  Queen,  14,  18. 
Encycloptdie  (L'},  166,  198-199. 
Krckmann,  301. 
Etienne,  Henri,  81-83. 
Evangile  des  Femmes,  30. 

Fabre,  301. 
Fabri,  108. 
Fastoul,  Baude,  20. 
Fauchet,  83. 
F^nelon,  157-160. 
Feuillet,  Octave,  299, 


Flaubert,  Gustave,  239,  294-295. 

Fl^chier,  152. 

Fontenelle,  95,  156,  166,  187-188. 

Fougeres,  Etienne  de,  30. 

Fournival,  Richard  de,  31. 

Franc  A  rctier  de  Bagnolet  (Lc),  26. 

France,  Anatole,  300,  306. 

I'roissart,  7,  21,  35. 

Furetiere,  147. 

Fustel  de  Coulanges,  306-307. 

Gace  Brule,  19. 

Garin  de  Monglane,  12. 

Garin  le  Loherain,  n. 

Gamier,  Robert,  72-73. 

Gamier  de  Pont  Sainte-Maxence,  34. 

Gautier,  Th^ophile,  238,  256-258. 

Gautier  le  Long,  29. 

Geoffrei  Gaimar,  33. 

Geoffrey  of  Monmouth,  15. 

Geoflfrin  (Mme),  212-213. 

Gerson,  36-37. 

Gilbert,  171-172. 

Gomberville,  118-119. 

Goncourt,  Edmond  de,  295. 

Goncourt,  Jules  de,  295. 

Greban,  Arnoul,  23. 

Greban,  Simon,  23. 

Cresset,  179. 

Grevin,  72,  74,  109. 

Grimm,  Melchior,  204. 

Gringoire,  27. 

Griselidis,  Histoire  de,  23. 

Gui  de  Coucy,  19. 

Guillaume  le  Marfchal,  34, 

Guiot  de  Provins,  30. 

Guizot,  270-271. 

Guyon  (Mme),  158. 

Hardy,  104-105. 

Hubert,  214. 

Helveiius,  203. 

Herberay  des  Essarts,  58. 

Heredia  (De),  282. 

Heroet,  49. 

Holbach  (D1),  204. 

Hotman,  79. 

Hugo,  Victor,  234,  246-254,  261. 

ffuon  de  Bordeaux,  n. 

Huon  le  Roi,  29. 

Huysmans,  302. 

Jacot  de  Forest,  14. 
Jacquemart,  Gel£e,  28. 
Jansen,  124. 
Jansenist  Movement  ( The),  124. 


INDEX 


311 


Jasmin,  4. 
Jean  de  Tuin,  14. 
Jodelle,  69,  71-72,  74. 
Joinville,  34-35. 
Joubert,  228. 

Kahn,  Gustave,  287. 
Karr,  269. 

Labe,  Louise,  50. 

Labiche,  291. 

La  Bo£tie,  78-79. 

La  Bruyere,  153-154,  156. 

La  Calprenede,  119. 

La  Chaussee,  165,  179-180. 

Lacordaire,  276. 

La  Fayette,  Comtesse  de,  147. 

La  Fontaine,  129-131,  156. 

La  Fosse,  Antoine  de,  152. 

Lahor,  Jean,  288. 

Lamartine,  237,  241-245. 

Lambert  le  Tort,  14. 

Lamennais,  231-232. 

La  Motte,  Houdart  de,  157,  170,  175-176. 

Lancelot,  123. 

La  Noue,  77-78. 

Larivey,  74,  135. 

La  Rochefoucauld,  145-146. 

La  Salle,  Antoine  de  la,  36. 

La  Taille,  Jean  de,  72,  74,  109. 

Lebrun,  164,  170. 

Leconte  de  Lisle,  279-280. 

Legouve,  260. 

Le  Maire  de  Beiges,  Jean,  45. 

Lemaitre,  Jules,  241,  293,  305-306. 

Le  Maitre,  123. 

Leroy,  Pierre,  80. 

Le  Sage,  165,  178-179,  182-183. 

Lespinasse  (Mile  de),  213. 

L'Hopital,  Michel  de,  79. 

Lorris,  Guillaume  de,  32. 

Loti,  Pierre,  300. 

Louis,  Le  Rot,  9. 

Machaut,  20-21. 
Maeterlinck,  288,  293. 
Maillart,  37. 
Mairet,  107,  no. 
Maistre,  Joseph  de,  228-229, 
Maistre,  Xavier  de,  229. 
Malherbe,  92,  96-98. 
Mallarme,  285-286. 
Manuel,  Eugene,  281. 
Marguerite  de  Navarre,  48,  55. 
Margueritte,  Paul,  303. 
Marie  de  France,  15,  28. 


Marivaux,  164,  177-178,  183. 

Marot,  Clement,  42,  45-48. 

Massillon,  160. 

Maupassant,  Guy  de,  298. 

Meigret,  81. 

Menippee,  La  Satire,  79-81. 

Menot,  37. 

Merimee,  265-266. 

Meschinot,  40. 

Meung,  Jean  de,  6,  32-33. 

Michelet,  272,  273. 

Mignet,  271-272. 

Mirabeau,  213-214. 

Mistral,  4. 

Moliere,  91,  132-138. 

Molinet,  40. 

Monluc,  Blaise  de,  76-77. 

Montaigne,  44,  84-89. 

Montchretien,  73. 

Montesquieu,  188-192. 

Moreas,  286-287. 

Moreau,  Hegesippe,  258. 

Murger,  269. 

Mussel,  Alfred  de,  254-256. 

Nennius,  15. 
Nicole,  123. 
Nodier,  Charles,  268. 

Ogier,  Frangois,  105-106,  109. 
Ohnet,  302. 
Orleans,  Siege  d",  24. 

Pailleron,  292. 

Paix  aux  Anglais  (La),  31. 

Parnassiens  (Les),  239,  277. 

Parny,  172. 

Pascal,  Blaise,  93,  123-126. 

Pasquier,  Etienne,  83-84. 

Passerat,  69,  81. 

Pathelin,  26-27. 

Pelerinage  de  Charlemagne,  9. 

Perrault,  Charles,  95,  156. 

Philippe  de  Thaon,  31. 

Piron,  168,  179. 

Pithou,  81. 

Pleiade  (La],  43,  59-62,  65-66 

Ponsard,  260-261. 

Pontus  de  Thyard,  59. 

Port-Royal,  123. 

Pourtalis,  Jean  de,  50. 

Pradon,  142. 

Prtcienses  (Les],  92,  100-104. 

Prevost  d'Exiles,  165,  183-184. 

Qutte  tfu  Saint-Graal  (La),  17. 
Quietists  (The],  158. 


312 


INDEX 


Quinault,  133. 
Quinet,  Edgar,  975. 

Rabelais,  42,  51-55. 

Racan,  107. 

Racine,  Jean,  91,  94,  138-144. 

Rantbouillet,  Hotel  de,  loo-ioa. 

Rambouillet,  Marquise  de,  100-101. 

Ramus  (or  Ramie),  81. 

Raoul  de  Cambrai,  10. 

Rapin,  Nicolas,  81. 

Reformation  (The),  43-44. 

Regnard,  152-153. 

Regnier,  Henri  de,  286. 

Regnier,  Mathurin,  92,  98-99. 

Renaissance  (The],  41-42. 

Renan,  303-304. 

Renard,  Roman  de,  28. 

Retz,  Cardinal  de,  145. 

Richelieu,  no,  120. 

Richepin,  288. 

Robespierre,  214. 

Rod,  302-303. 

Roland,  Chanson  de,  12-13. 

Rolinat,  288. 

Romanticism,  233,  237-238. 

Ronsard,  43,  59,  62-64,  66,  68,  109. 

Rostand,  Edmond,  393. 

Rotrou,  116-117. 

Roumanille,  4. 

Round  Table  [The],  16-17. 

Rousseau,  Jean  Baptiste,  167-168. 

Rousseau,  Jean  Jacques,  162,  185,  205-211. 

Rutebeuf,  23,  29-30. 

Sable  (Mile  de),  102. 
Saint- Augustine,  124. 
Saint-Cloud,  Pierre  de,  14. 
Saint-Cyran,  124. 
Saint- Evremond,  116. 
Saint-Gelais,  Melin  de,  49. 
Saint-Just,  214. 
Saint-Pierre.    See  Bernardin. 
Saint-Simon,  Due  de,  160-161 
Saint-Sorlin.    See  Desmarets. 
Sainte-Beuve,  238,  273-275. 
Sales,  Saint  Francois  de,  117. 
Sand,  George,  262-264. 
Sardou,  Victorien,  291-293. 
Saurin,  153. 
Scaliger,  71,  109. 
Scarron,  104. 
Scfeve,  Maurice,  49. 


Schelandre,  105-106. 

Scribe,  259-260. 

Scudery,  Georges  de,  104. 

Scudery,  Madeleine  de,  1 19, 

Sebond,  Raimond  de,  86. 

Senancour,  227-228. 

Sevigne  (Mme  de),  146-147. 

Sibilet,  108. 

Simon,  Richard,  148. 

Sorel,  119. 

Souvestre,  268-269. 

Sponsus,  33. 

Stael  (Mme  de),  215,  319-222. 

Stendhal,  264-265. 

Sue,  Eugene,  268. 

Sully,  Maurice  de,  36. 

Sully-Prudhomme,  280-281. 

Symbolistes  (Les),  239-240,  284-285. 

Taine,  304-305. 
Theuriet,  301-302. 
Thibaut  de  Champagne,  19. 
Thierry,  Augustin,  269-270. 
Thiers,  271. 
Thomas,  16. 
Thou  (De),  78. 
Tocqueville  (De),  273. 
Troie,  Destntction  de,  24. 
Turgot,  204. 
Turnebe,  Odet  de,  74. 

Unities,  Rules  of  the  Three,  107-110. 
Urfe  (D1),  118. 

Valerius,  Julius,  13. 
Vaugelas,  93,  120-121. 
Vauquelin  de  la  Fresnaye,  69. 
Vauvenargues,  197-198. 
Verhaeren,  287. 
Verlaine,  240,  282-285. 
Viau,  Theophile  de,  92,  99-100,  106-107. 
Viele-Griffin,  287-288. 
Vigny,  Alfred  de,  245-246. 
Villehardouin,  34, 
Villemain,  275. 
Villon,  6,  38-40,  42. 
Vogu6  (De),  306. 
Voiture,  101. 

Voltaire,  162,   164,  168-170,  176-177,  184- 
185,  193-197. 

Wace,  Robert,  33. 
Zola,  239,  295-297. 


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Rambeau's  French  Reader 

Edited  with  notes  and  vocabulary  by  A.  Rambeau,  Ph.D., 
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UBKARY 


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